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!
On the recordFebruary 22, 1842
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gutenberg.orgEditor'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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