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more wisdom from Lincoln

It is difficult to make a man miserable when he feels worthy of himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him.


The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself every way he can, never suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him.  Allow me to assure you that suspicion and jealousy never did help any man in any situation.  There may sometimes be ungenerous attempts to keep a young man down; and they will succeed, too, if he allows his mind to be diverted from its true channel [and] to brood over the attempted injury.


I never behold them [the heavens filled with stars] that I do not feel I am looking into the face of God.  I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how he could look up into the heavens and say there is no God.


I hold that if the Almighty had ever made a set of men that should do all the eating and none of the work, He would have made them with mouths only and no hands; and if He had ever made another class that He intended should do all the work and no eating, He would have made them with hands only and no mouths.


The Lord prefers common-looking people.  That is the reason He makes so many of them.


Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
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