New Year’s Resolutions: Some Advice From Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin

Some hard-earned advice from the theologian and the Founding Father.

Benjamin Franklin devised a list of 13 virtues that he sought to live by. Biba Kayewich

With 2025 just around the corner, many of us are contemplating a New Year’s Resolution or two.

Some will qualify their resolutions, as in “I’ll diet during the week but eat what I want on the weekends” or “I’ll give up cigarettes and take up vaping.” The first stanza of Rudyard Kipling’s “New Year’s Resolutions” perfectly captures this allowance for wiggle room: