Political Quotes

Abraham Lincoln: “What an ignorance of human nature does it exhibit, to ask or expect a whole community to rise up and labour for the…”

On the recordFebruary 22, 1842
What an ignorance of human nature does it exhibit, to ask or expect a whole community to rise up and labour for the temporal happiness of others, after themselves shall be consigned to the dust, a majority of which community take no pains whatever to secure their own eternal welfare at no more distant day!
Said by
Abraham Lincoln
Republican · Illinois

Editor's note · Context

Speaking on temperance, Lincoln critiques the unrealistic expectation that people will work for the distant happiness of others when they neglect their own eternal well-being.

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