Life — February 1, 1923 — page 10: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Poor Richard's Almanac: Benjamin Franklin's Maxims—Revised This page presents satirical rewrites of Benjamin Franklin's famous aphorisms from *Poor Richard's Almanac*. The original maxims promoted thrift, hard work, and virtue; Life magazine's "revised" versions subvert these messages with cynical modern observations. For example, Franklin's "Early to bed and early to rise" becomes commentary on flapper culture. "A house without woman and firelight" is reframed to question marriage's value. References to drinking Scotch, bankruptcy, and sexual behavior mock Victorian morality and 1920s excess. The woodcut illustrations accompanying the text depict scenes of revelry, drunkenness, and domestic chaos—visually reinforcing the satire's critique of modern society's abandonment of Puritan ideals. The byline "T. H. L." indicates the revisions' author.