Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“The second vice is lying, the first is running in debt.”
- Source
- The Way to Wealth
- Date
- 1758
- Local voice
- Authorial persona / framed maxim · Poor Richard maxim, repeated through Father Abraham
Meaning of “The second vice is lying, the first is…”
Franklin links avoidable debt with later pressure to make excuses or break promises, presenting financial obligation as a potential test of honesty.
Where does it come from?
The Way to Wealth, debt-and-credit section; Project Gutenberg #43855. This is eighteenth-century moral rhetoric and should not be read as a judgment that indebted people are inherently dishonest.
Why the local voice matters
The Way to Wealth is framed as Father Abraham’s address compiling maxims Franklin had published through the Poor Richard / Richard Saunders persona. This record therefore preserves the framed authorial-persona layer instead of treating the maxim as unmediated Franklin narration.
