Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography

I've just started reading the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. I'm sure it will be a wonderful source of new quotes. Here, the first two of what will probably be many.

In the introduction, he talks about how God has blessed him greatly. He's "...gone so far through life with a consderable share of felicity..."

That Felicity, when I reflected on it, has induc’d me sometimes to say, that were it offer’d to my Choice, I should have no Objection to a Repetition of the same Life from its Beginning, only asking the Advantages Authors have in a second Edition to correct some Faults of the first. So would I if I might, besides correcting the Faults, change some sinister Accidents & Events of it for others more favourable, but tho’ this were deny’d, I should still accept the Offer.

In section 4, he relates a story passed down from his grandfather's day about the perils of being Protestant in a Catholic country:

This obscure Family of ours was early in the Reformation, and continu’d Protestants thro’ the Reign of Queen Mary, when they were sometimes in Danger of Trouble on Account of their Zeal against Popery. They had got an English Bible, & to conceal & secure it, it was fastened open with Tapes under & within the Frame of a Joint Stool. When my Great Great Grandfather read in it to his Family, he turn’d up the Joint Stool upon his Knees, turning over the Leaves then under the Tapes. One of the Children stood at the Door to give Notice if he saw the Apparitor coming, who was an Officer of the Spiritual Court. In that Case the Stool was turn’d down again upon its feet, when the Bible remain’d conceal’d under it as before.

There's little question that I will enjoy reading the rest of his work. Stay tuned for more quotes.