So what if he had a funny hairdo? The guy was a genius. Benjamin Franklin invented the Franklin stove, bifocals, the odometer. He had sparkalation. (That is me, totally inspired, and inventing a new word.)

He was the founder of America’s first lending library and one of America’s Founding Fathers and Mothers. (Surely we must give credit to the women who, I am sure, sparked a lot of the ideas that were circulating at the time. I can just picture them behind the scenes, saying, “Dear, don’t you think it would be a good idea to write down the Declaration of Independence so it doesn’t get lost?”)

Anyway, the best thing Franklin said that is relevant to those who want to live their best chapter is this:

“Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.”

We can all try–just for today–to invent a new, positive word, and leave the rest unsaid.