Quotes: Limitation. Lincoln. Listening.

A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.

Limitation
We allow limitations if we see them as a sign of growth.
Limitation 957 We can afford to allow the limitation, if we know it is the meter of the growing man. Emerson, The Conduct of Life: Fate.

Lincoln
When Abe prays, God thinks he is joking.
Lincoln 627 Two Quakeresses in a railway coach…overheard in a conversation: “I think Jefferson [Davis] will succeed”… “Why does thee think so?” … “Because Jefferson is a praying man” … “And so Is Abraham a praying man” … Yes, but the Lord will think Abraham is joking.” Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The War Years.

Lincoln did not think that executing a man would make him a better man.
Lincoln 658 Of one hot summer afternoon John Hay wrote in his diary that the President spent six hours on court-martial transcripts, catching at any fact that would justify saving a life…doubted “it would make any man better to shoot him.” Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The War Years.

Examples of epithets used in the press to describe Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln 661 Leslie’s Weekly enumerated “sweet scented compliments” paid by the opposition press to the President of the united States, namely: ape, gorilla, fool, filthy storyteller, despot, liar, thief, braggart, buffoon, usurper, monster, tortoise, ignoramus, old scoundrel, perjurer, robber, swindler, tyrant, fiend, butcher, land pirate. Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The War Years.

Lincoln was the common sense of the people incarnate.
Lincoln 422 Lincoln…the incarnate common sense of the people. Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The War Years.

For Lincoln, it is lights out, good night, and farewell.
Lincoln 844 For Abraham Lincoln it is lights out, good night, farewell—and a long farewell to the good earth and its trees, its enjoyable companions, and the Union of States and the world Family of Man he has loved. Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The War Years.

Of Lincoln: His humility was beyond understanding.
Lincoln..... 876..... Octavius Brooks Frothingham, Third Congreational Unitarian Society in New York City: Such humility almost passes understanding. Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The War Years.

Lincoln’s face reflected suffering accepted.
Lincoln 876 Octavius Brooks Frothingham, Pastor of the Third Congregational Unitarian Society in New York City: What a history was written on that care-worn and furrowed face—of suffering accepted, sorrow entertained, emotions buried and duty done. Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The War Years.

Tolstoy: Lincoln was another Christ, a saint of humanity.
Lincoln 882 Tolstoy: Lincoln was…a Christ in miniature, a saint of humanity…. Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The War Years.

Listening
The preacher’s first idea leads to a train of thought that causes me to no longer hear him.
Listening 418 The first strong idea, which the preacher utters, gives birth to a train of thought, and leads me onward, step by step, quite our of hearing of the good man’s voice. Hawthorne, Tales and Sketches.

JFK invited opinions and he listened to them with undivided attention.
Listening 516 He [Kennedy] invited their opinions and, whatever the crises on his desk, heard them out with undivided attention. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days

Lenin exhausted people by listening to them.
Listening 617 Isaiah Berlin was reminded of a remark made about Lenin: that he could exhaust people by listening to them. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days

People talk to each other but don’t listen to what the other is saying.
Listening 575 Each of the speakers expresses himself imperfectly: No one of them hears much that another says, such is the preoccupation of mind of each…. Emerson, Nominalist and Realist.

Serious talking causes others not to listen. [It’s the tone of seriousness that puts off people; serious conversations happen if the tone is not intense.]
Listening 184 …when one spoke with serious intent there was…the uneasy feeling that the others were not listening that the words were alien to them and conveyed no meaning. Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.