Save me from folly, vanity and vice !

I was reading Benjamin Franklin's autobiography. It is amazing to see how the man rose from a life of obscurity (born as a son of a candle maker) to one with great accomplishments and influence of epic proportions in so many diverse fields. An experimentalist, a theoretician, an inventor, a scientist,a pulisher, a philosopher, a politician, a revolutionary. Though I am still into the first half of the book, but it is an amazing read. The way Franklin distances himself from his life and describes it is brilliant. Even more brilliant is the wisdom that is interwoven throughout. Among other things , it shows one how to see oneself in a proverbial mirror to have a unbiased view and how to succesfully work your way towards what you want to be. A story of determination, tragedies, heroism and ulimately victory. No doubt, he would have been great in any age, any time. It reinforces my belief that some truths are eternal and some laws will always operate in the universe beyond relativity.

I also like the little prayers that he wrote down for himself. Especially the one --
"O powerful Goodness! bountiful Father! merciful Guide! increase in me that wisdom which discovers my truest interest. strengthen my resolutions to perform what that wisdom dictates. Accept my kind offices to thy other children as the only return in my power for thy continual favors to me."

The lines taken from Thomson's poems are also beautiful and elevating --
"Father of light and life, thou Good Supreme!
O teach me what is good; teach me Thyself!
Save me from folly, vanity, and vice,
From every low pursuit; and fill my soul
With knowledge, conscious peace, and virtue pure;
Sacred, substantial, never-fading bliss!"