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| Abraham Lincoln - 1865 - photograph by Alexander Gardner |
Abraham Lincoln is my favorite president. He was not perfect. His beliefs may seem antiquated or irrelevant to our times. He was a complex man who battled depression, loss, physical illness, and other issues. He may have been gay or bisexual, which made him even more complex and I admire him for it. He was tall.
Below are some great quotes from our 16th president. The ones in bold are my favorites.
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative and independence.
I don't like that man. I must get to know him better.
Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new at all.
God must love the common man, he made so many of them.
I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.
Surely God would not have created such a being as man, with an ability to grasp the infinite, to exist only for a day! No, no, man was made for immortality.
I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.
I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.
Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem.
When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees.
If there is anything that a man can do well, I say let him do it. Give him a chance.
When I am getting ready to reason with a man, I spend one-third of my time thinking about myself and what I am going to say and two-thirds about him and what he is going to say.
No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.
The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read.
The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself in every way he can, never suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him.
The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.
Great quotes, Karl. I have been around the block about Lincoln. Maybe the problem is he was deified, and no one can live up to that. The only resentment I ever felt regarding him was nothing he did himself. It was this "he freed the slaves" mythology. It's a much more complex story than that, nothing I can put in a capsule for a comment. He probably would have been horrified by the mythology that came to surround him. In the context of his time, he was a good man, and in any time, a wise and articulate one. As politicians go, he was as good as it gets.
ReplyDeleteCan you tell I have gone through disillusionment? I think I have come out on the other side, but some days I get caught up in misanthropy. I am having one of those days.
I am pretty disgusted with humanity too. Maybe I should sit back, observe, make my pictures and ignore the rest. Pretty tempting.
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