Wealth & Money Quote by Benjamin Franklin

Franklin dresses up a moral lesson as a tidy quiz, then spikes the punchbowl at the end. The first three lines sound like the kind of Enlightenment self-help you could stitch on a sampler: be teachable, be disciplined, be satisfied. Each definition quietly demotes the usual status markers. Wisdom isn’t credentials, it’s permeability. Power isn’t command over others, it’s command over the self. Wealth isn’t accumulation, it’s an internal thermostat that refuses to spike with every new want. He’s rewriting the job titles of the 18th century in psychological terms.

Then comes the sucker punch: "Who is that? Nobody". It’s not nihilism so much as Franklin’s signature inoculation against sanctimony. The cadence is catechism-like, inviting agreement, until the final word reveals the trap: these virtues are ideals we praise precisely because we rarely embody them. The subtext is political as much as personal. A republic depends on citizens who can be taught, restrain appetites, and live without constant grievance - but Franklin knew how thin that civic virtue can run in real markets, real elections, real egos.

Context matters: Franklin is a founder who made his name on pragmatism, commerce, and public persuasion, not monastic purity. The line reads like a self-aware warning from someone who understood human nature as improv, not scripture. He’s telling you to aim high while assuming you’ll miss - and to keep aiming anyway, because the alternative is letting wealth and power stay in their most dangerous, outward forms.