Founding Father Benjamin Franklin is considered to have written many famed expressions, some legitimately and others without evidence.
There's the famous "deaths and taxes" sentiment that he wrote in a 1789 letter, and then there's the falsely attributed "a penny saved is a penny earned" quote. And, sorry, Franklin didn't write that "beer is proof God Loves us and wants us to be happy."
Another quote often — though inaccurately — credited to Franklin reads:
Social media posts attributing this to Franklin have appeared across numerous platforms, including
There is no documented evidence that Franklin ever made this statement. Though the quote is often attributed to him as a motto for the value of experiential learning, the earliest iteration of the quote known to experts is traced to the writings of third-century Confucian philosopher Xun Kuang, also known as Xunzi.
Since 1954, Yale University has housed many of Franklin's papers. The digital archive, The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, provides access to more than 37 volumes of writings and essays. A keyword search through the database for the supposed quote in its entirety yielded no results.
"There is no evidence that Benjamin Franklin ever said this epigram. Some scholars have attributed it to a Confucian philosopher named Xun Kuang, who lived in the fourth century B.C." The Franklin Institute website says.
Xunzi was a Chinese man who lived from 312 to 230 B.C. According to the literary website Goodreads, "His works were collected into a set of 32 books called the Xunzi, by Liu Xiang in about 818 AD." According to Goodreads, the quote in question originally appeared in Book 8 of the collection, titled "Ruxiao," or "The Teachings of the Ru." The quotation, found in Chapter 11, reads in Chinese:
不闻不若闻之, 闻之不若见之, 见之不若知之, 知之不若行之
This translates to:
Not having heard something is not as good as having heard it; having heard it is not as good as having seen it; having seen it is not as good as knowing it; knowing it is not as good as putting it into practice.
Xunzi: The Complete Text by translator Eric L. Hutton is the first complete, one-volume English translation of the Xunzi. It was published in 2014 and is archived on the internet archive site Wayback Machine. The above quote is found on Page 64. The section continues:
Learning arrives at putting it into practice and then stops, because to put it into practice is to understand it, and to understand it is to be a sage. The sage bases himself on ren and yi, hits exactly on what is right and wrong, and makes his words and practices match up completely, all without the slightest misstep. There is no other way to this than simply to stop at putting it into practice. Thus, if you have heard of it but have not seen it, then even if you are broadly learned, you are sure to be mistaken. If you have seen it but do not know it, then even though you can recognize it, you are sure to act recklessly. If you know it but do not put it into practice, then even if you are thoroughly familiar with it, you are sure to find yourself trapped. If you have neither heard of it nor seen it, then even though you hit on what is fitting, that is not ren; such a way
The quote fact-checking website Quote Investigator reports that another "partial match" of the quote appears in the ancient Chinese collection of stories called the Shuo Yuan. According to the website, the following excerpt was translated by John Knoblock:
The ear's hearing something is not as good as the eye's seeing it; the eye's seeing it is not as good as the foot's treading upon it; the foot's treading upon it is not as good as the hands differentiating it.
Blaine McCormick, associate professor and chair of the management department at Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business, wrote the book, "Ben Franklin: America's Original Entrepreneur." In a 2015 interview with the university, McCormick confirmed that the famous quote should not be attributed to Franklin.
"This one doesn't even sound Colonial, does it? Nor does, 'The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness,' You have to catch it yourself' or 'By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail,'" McCormick said. "Yet, all three regularly show up online when people collect Franklin quotes."
Other Snopes fact checks about supposed Franklin sentiments can be read here.