|
?:reviewBody
|
-
A viral image posted on Facebook alleges that founding father Benjamin Franklin once said, We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid. Verdict: False There is no evidence that Franklin ever made this statement. Fact Check: This meme uses the quote to insult Donald Trump’s intelligence, pairing it with a photo of the president and a caption that reads, The hardest working man in America. The alleged quote has been attributed to Franklin, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and one of the nation’s most prominent founders, countless times online. However, there is no evidence that he ever made this statement. A search of Franklin’s collected works turned up nothing similar. I’ve never run across it. Doesn’t sound like Franklin to me, H.W. Brands , historian and author of The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin , told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an email. (RELATED: Did Benjamin Franklin Say This Quote About Avoiding Tyranny?) In its current form, the expression has only been circulating in print since 1999, according to etymologist Barry Popik . Variations of the quote, however, date back much further. The saying resembles the words of 18th century French philosopher Claude Adrien Helvétius , for example. In his A Treatise on Man , Helvetius writes , Man is born ignorant; he is not born a fool; and it is not even without labour that he is made one. Follow Brad on Twitter Have a fact check suggestion? Send ideas to [email protected] All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing [email protected] .
(en)
|
![[This page as RDF]](http://data.gesis.org/claimskg/static/rdf-icon.gif){kind=icon}