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About this quote

What does it mean?
Franklin argues we should freely share inventions since we benefit from others.
In plain terms
Share your inventions freely because you benefit from others.
What can you take from it?
Give back by sharing your innovations.

Where it applies

  • intellectual property
  • community building
  • teaching

Putting it to work

  • open-source
  • mentoring
  • sharing knowledge

Questions to consider

  • What would you share freely?
  • How do ideas circulate in your field?

Another view

May not sustain creators without compensation.

More from Benjamin Franklin

  1. I believe I have omitted mentioning that, in my first voyage from Boston, being becalm'd off Block Island, our people set about catching cod, and hauled up a g…

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  2. I believe there is one Supreme most perfect being. ... I believe He is pleased and delights in the happiness of those He has created; and since without virtue …

    Permalink to quote #22
  3. My parents had early given me religious impressions, and brought me through my childhood piously in the Dissenting way. But I was scarce fifteen, when, after d…

    Permalink to quote #19

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