EQUIVOCATION
by: Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
- OME have
learn't many tricks of sly evasion,
- Instead of truth they use equivocation,
- And eke it out with mental reservation,
- Which, to good men, is an abomination.
- Our smith of late most wonderfully swore,
- That whilst he breathed he would drink no more,
- But since, I know his meaning, for I think,
- He meant he would not breathe whilst he did drink.
"Equivocation" is reprinted
from Poor Richard's Almanack. January, 1736. |
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