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Card #c1057IR // #c1057Synthesis

"I concluded to let my papers shift for themselves, believing it was better to spend what time I could spare from public business in making new experiments, than in disputing about those already made."

— In our words · Source: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (Benjamin Franklin)

[Use when]

A critic attacks work that others can check, and a reply would cost time you need for the next piece.

[Why it matters]

The Abbé Nollet attacked his electrical work in print. His experiments could be repeated by anyone, so an answer would add nothing. He kept working. That Nollet lived "to see himself the last of his sect" is his account.

More from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

#c1038"I took some of the papers, and, making short hints of the sentiment in each sentence, laid them by a few days, and then, without looking…You want to learn a craft from a master's work and reading it again isn't teaching you anything. #c1039"I was charm'd with it, adopted it, dropt my abrupt contradiction and positive argumentation, and put on the humble inquirer and doubter."…Your questions keep winning arguments and people have started refusing to answer them. #c1040"I made it a rule to forbear all direct contradiction to the sentiments of others, and all positive assertion of my own." "in answering I…You are right on the substance and still losing the room.