Distinction will be his paramount object, and although he would as willingly, perhaps more so, acquire it by doing good as harm, yet that opportunity being passed, and nothing left to be done in the way of building up, he would sit down boldly to the task of pulling down.
From his Lyceum Address, Lincoln describes how an ambitious individual, unable to achieve distinction through creation, might turn to destruction.
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The question is, will it be wiser to take it as it is and help to improve it, or to reject and disperse it?
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