— Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1737
About this quote
हिन्दी में
अच्छी तरह कही गई बात से अच्छी तरह किया गया काम बेहतर है।
What it means
The claim is narrow and comparative: two good things — a deed done well and a thing said well — are being ranked, not one being condemned. Coming from a man who earned his living writing sentences, it is not an attack on talk. It says that when a deed and a description of a deed compete for the same credit, the deed takes it.
The line is worth keeping for its form as much as its content: a short phrase on each side of the scale, with well doing duty twice, so the sentence spends less breath than any paraphrase of it. Its common use as ‘stop talking and get to work’ adds a hostility the line does not carry — saying a thing well is still on the list of things done well, just lower on it.
What it teaches you
Apply it to your own announcements before you apply it to anyone else’s, because a stated intention quietly collects some of the credit of a finished thing: look at the plans you have described in detail to people and delivered nothing on. In hiring, appraisals and pitches, the workable version is to keep two columns — items delivered and items described — and read the ratio rather than the enthusiasm.
अर्थ और सीख
फ़्रैंकलिन यह नहीं कहते कि बोलना बेकार है; वे दो अच्छी चीज़ों में क्रम तय करते हैं — जब श्रेय की बात आए, तो किया गया काम कही गई बात से आगे रहेगा। वाक्य ख़ुद इतना छोटा है कि वह अपनी ही सलाह का उदाहरण बन जाता है। सीख यह है कि अपने और दूसरों के दावों को दो हिस्सों में गिनिए — कितना बताया गया और कितना पूरा हुआ।
Where it comes from
Genuine Benjamin Franklin — printed in Poor Richard’s Almanack for 1737, the annual in which Franklin, writing as ‘Poor Richard,’ minted much of American proverb culture.
