This plan for pursuing virtue, combined with the religious outlook that he had simultaneously been formulating, laid the foundation for a lifelong creed. It was based on pragmatic humanism and a belief in a benevolent but distant deity who was best served by being benevolent to others. Franklin's ideas never ripened into a profound moral or religious philosophy. He focused on understanding virtue rather than God's grace, and he based his creed on rational utility rather than religious faith.
-Walter Isaacson, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
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