A Ben Franklin quotation?

[Ken Hirsch]

On Wed, Oct 23, 2013 at 11:24 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> From the H-OIEAHC at H-NET.MSU.EDU (Early America) list:
>
>  Along these lines, I wonder if anyone can identify the source of
>> this curious quote attributed to Ben Franklin: "Without continual
>> growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and
>> success have no meaning."
>
>

All of Franklin's writings are searchable at franklinpapers.org

http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/framedVolumes.jsp

I can't find anything similar to the alleged quote in that database.

It doesn't sound 18th century to me, either.

The earliest I have found it are (unverified) 1999 and 2000.

http://www.valicenti.com/files/999.pdf#page=5 This PDF was created in 2004,
but it was evidently written in 1999.

>From February 2000:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~graceyor/govdocs/adnotes/2000/210500/an2105g.txt

Ken Hirsch

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