No Apology for Business
Benjamin Franklin includes this list in his 1731 “Apology for Printers”:
I request all who are angry with me on the Account of printing things they don’t like, calmly to consider these following Particulars
- That the Opinions of Men are almost as various as their Faces; an Observation general enough to become a common Proverb, So many Men so many Minds.
- That the Business of Printing has chiefly to do with Men’s Opinions; most things that are printed tending to promote some, or oppose others.
- That hence arises the peculiar Unhappiness of that Business, which other Callings are no way liable to; they who follow Printing being scarce able to do any thing in their way of getting a Living, which shall not probably give Offence to some, and perhaps to many; whereas the Smith, the Shoemaker, the Carpenter, or the Man of any other Trade, may work indifferently…
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