This Indian knew how to set a true value upon a pair of spectacles: for undoubtedly if those glasses were not so plentiful, and only a few of them could be found, they would, on account of their great use, bear the same price with diamonds." See Kalm's Travels into North America, Vol.
Benjamin Franklin: “This Indian knew how to set a true value upon a pair of spectacles: for undoubtedly if those glasses were not so…”
Editor's note · Context
Franklin comments on the true value of spectacles, suggesting that their scarcity would elevate their worth to that of diamonds, illustrating the relativity of value.
Share
More from Benjamin Franklin
They have no profitable appointments, but a mere payment of daily wages, such as are scarcely equivalent to their expences, so that having no chance for great places and enormous salaries or pensions, as in some countries, there is no…
It is comfortable to have a good opinion of one's self, and of every thing that belongs to us, to think one's own religion, king, and wife, the best of all possible wives, kings, and religions.
If the treaty cannot be made as much to your advantage as to ours, don't make it.
Few of their Children in the Country learn English . . . The Signs in our Streets have Inscriptions in both Languages, and in some places only [their language] . . . In short, unless the Stream of their Importation could be turned…





