Early to Bed

This proverb was famously included in Benjamin Franklin's 'Poor Richard's Almanack' in 1735, though it likely predates it as a common saying promoting good habits. Historical evidence shows variations of the proverb existed centuries earlier, appearing in print as early as 1496 in "The Treatise of Fishing with an Angle," where it was already referred to as an "old English proverb." Other early forms emerged in 1523 ("Early rising maketh a man whole in body, holer in soul and richer in goods") and the proverb appeared in its familiar modern phrasing in 1639 in "Paroemiologia," a collection by British schoolmaster John Clarke. Franklin popularized the saying, though he himself sometimes deviated from its strict observance, occasionally rising as late as 10 a.m. despite generally waking around 5 a.m.