Search
Close this search box.

Benjamin Franklin has been loosely quoted as saying:

“Learning to Serve God, family and community should be the aim and end of all true learning.”

Here’s the actual quote:

The Idea of what is true Merit, should also be often presented to Youth, explain’d and impress’d on their Minds, as consisting in an Inclination join’d with an Ability to serve Mankind, one’s Country, Friends and Family; which Ability is (with the Blessing of God) to be acquir’d or greatly encreas’d by true Learning; and should indeed be the great Aim and End of all Learning.

(“Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania, [October 1749],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-03-02-0166. [Original source: The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 3, January 1, 1745, through June 30, 1750, ed. Leonard W. Labaree. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1961, pp. 397–421.])

The full paper can be found here: https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-03-02-0166