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I Shall Be Most Happy Indeed If I Shall Be An Humble Instrument In The Hands Of The Almighty, And Of This His Almost Chosen People.
-Abraham Lincoln
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I Shall Be Most

Abraham Lincoln
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I Shall Be Most Happy Indeed If I Shall Be An Humble Instrument In The Hands Of The Almighty, And Of This His Almost Chosen People.

Understanding the Quote: "i shall be most happy indeed if i shall be an humble..."

This quote by Abraham Lincoln reflects deeply on the theme of humble. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Humble, Hands, People, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Abraham Lincoln interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln is celebrated for insightful thoughts on humble and hands. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Humble
Hands
People
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And You Are Entirely Free From Head-ache? That Is Good -- Good -- Considering It Is The First Spring You Have Been Free From It Since We Were Acquainted. I Am Afraid You Will Get So Well, And Fat, And Young, As To Be Wanting To Marry Again.
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The President Is The Cube Of Ice One Places In The Pot Of A Houseplant, Providing A Steady Amount Of Nourishment Over The Course Of A Hot Day. A Good Description Of The Job And Also A Fantastic Bit Of Practical Household Advice.
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I Am Nothing, Truth Is Everything.
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The Strongest Bond Of Human Sympathy Outside The Family Relation Should Be One Uniting Working People Of All Nations And Tongues And Kindreds.
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Too Big To Cry Too Young To Laugh.
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If Slavery Is Not Wrong, Nothing Is Wrong.
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I Am For . . . Each Individual Doing Just As He Chooses In All Matters Which Concern Nobody Else.
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Let Us Do Nothing Through Passion And Ill Temper.
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The Cause Of Civil Liberty Must Not Be Surrendered At The End Of One, Or Even One Hundred Defeats.
Liberty
Civil Rights
Causes
A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand.
Leadership
Inspirational Life
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If There Is Anything That Links The Human To The Divine, It Is The Courage To Stand By A Principle When Everybody Else Rejects It.
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Divine
Ready Are We All To Cry Out And Ascribe Motives When Our Toes Are Pinched.
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Motive
Repeal The Missouri Compromise - Repeal All Compromises - Repeal The Declaration Of Independence - Repeal All Past History, You Still Can Not Repeal Human Nature. It Still Will Be The Abundance Of Man's Heart, That Slavery Extension Is Wrong; And Out Of The Abundance Of His Heart, His Mouth Will Continue To Speak.
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Heart
Past
If We Could First Know Where We Are, And Whither We Are Tending, We Could Then Better Judge What To Do, And How To Do It.
Motivational
Judging
Political
Next To Creating A Life The Finest Thing A Man Can Do Is Save One.
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Creating
Next
You Can't Escape Tomorrow's Responsibilities By Evading It Today
Responsibility
Today
Tomorrow
Nearly All Men Can Stand Adversity, But If You Want To Test A Man's Character, Give Him Power.
Inspirational
Leadership
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None Seemed To Think The Injury Arose From The Use Of A Bad Thing But From The Abuse Of A Very Good Thing
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Thinking
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Sir, My Concern Is Not Whether God Is On Our Side; My Greatest Concern Is To Be On God's Side, For God Is Always Right.
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God
Wisdom
You Have Confidence In Yourself, Which Is Valuable, If Not An Indispensable Quality.
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If The Union Of These States, And The Liberties Of This People, Shall Be Lost, It Is But Little To Any One Man Of Fifty-two Yearsof Age, But A Great Deal To The Thirty Millions Of People Who Inhabit These United States, And To Their Posterity In All Coming Time.
Men
Two
People
The Master Not Only Governs The Slave Without His Consent, But He Governs Him By A Set Of Rules Altogether Different From Those Which He Prescribes For Himself. Allow All The Governed An Equal Voice In The Government, And That, And That Only, Is Self-government.
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Voice
We Must Believe That He Permits It [this War] For Some Wise Purpose Of His Own, Mysterious And Unknown To Us; And Though With Ourlimited Understandings We May Not Be Able To Comprehend It, Yet We Cannot But Believe, That He Who Made The World Still Governs It.
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Doubtless You Begin To Understand How Disagreeable It Is To Me To Do A Thing Arbitrarily, When It Is Unsatisfactory To Others Associated With Me.
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Disagreeable
I Have Endured A Great Deal Of Ridicule Without Much Malice; And Have Received A Great Deal Of Kindness, Not Quite Free From Ridicule. I Am Used To It.
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Kindness
Used
Should My Administration Prove To Be A Very Wicked One...or A Very Foolish One, If You, The People, Are True To Yourselves And The Constitution, There Is Little Harm I Can Do, Thank God.
People
Wicked
Thank God
If You Are Resolutely Determined To Make A Lawyer Of Yourself, The Thing Is More Than Half Done Already. It Is But A Small Matter Whether You Read With Anyone Or Not. I Did Not Read With Anyone. Get The Books, And Read And Study Them Till You Understand Them In Their Principal Features; And That Is The Main Thing. It Is Of No Consequence To Be In A Large Town While You Are Reading. I Read At New Salem, Which Never Had Three Hundred People Living In It. The Books, And Your Capacity For Understanding Them, Are Just The Same In All Places.
Book
Reading
People
The Purposes Of The Almighty Are Perfect, And Must Prevail, Though We Erring Mortals May Fail To Accurately Perceive Them In Advance. We Hoped For A Happy Termination Of This Terrible War Long Before This; But God Knows Best, And Has Ruled Otherwise. We Shall Yet Acknowledge His Wisdom, And Our Own Error Therein. Meanwhile We Must Work Earnestly In The Best Lights He Gives Us, Trusting That So Working Still Conduces To The Great Ends He Ordains. Surely He Intends Some Great Good To Follow This Mighty Convulsion, Which No Mortal Could Make, And No Mortal Could Stay.
Religious
War
Errors
I Have Always Found That Mercy Bears Richer Fruits Than Strict Justice.
Inspirational
Life
Motivational
I Go For All Sharing The Privileges Of The Government Who Assist In Bearing Its Burdens. Consequently I Go For Admitting All Whites To The Right Of Suffrage Who Pay Taxes Or Bear Arms, By No Means Excluding Females.
Mean
Government
Female
I Say 'try'; If We Never Try, We Shall Never Succeed.
Trying
Succeed
Last Words
Again I Admonish You Not To Be Turned From Your Stern Purpose Of Defending Your Beloved Country And Its Free Institutions By Any Arguments Urged By Ambitious And Designing Men, But Stand Fast To The Union And The Old Flag.
Country
Perseverance
Men
We The People Are The Rightful Masters Of Both Congress And The Courts, Not To Overthrow The Constitution But To Overthrow The Men Who Pervert The Constitution.
Freedom
Men
Democracies Have
I Am Approached With The Most Opposite Opinions And Advice, And That By Religious Men, Who Are Equally Certain That They Represent The Divine Will. ... I Hope It Will Not Be Irreverent For Me To Say That If It Is Probable That God Would Reveal His Will To Others, On A Point So Connected With My Duty, It Might Be Supposed He Would Reveal It Directly To Me... These Are Not, However, The Days Of Miracles ... I Must Study The Plain Physical Facts Of The Case, Ascertain What Is Possible, And Learn What Appears To Be Wise And Right.
Wise
Religious
Men
As The Patriots Of Seventy-six Did To The Support Of The Declaration Of Independence, So To The Support Of The Constitution And Laws, Let Every American Pledge His Life, His Property, And His Sacred Honor;-let Every Man Remember That To Violate The Law, Is To Trample On The Blood Of His Father, And To Tear The Character Of His Own, And His Children's Liberty.
Children
Father
Character
You Cannot Fail Unless You Quit.
Inspirational
Karma
Quitting
Fondly Do We Hope, Ferverently Do We Pray, That This Mighty Scourge Of War May Speedily Pass Away.
Peace
War
Ubuntu
The Sense Of Obligation To Continue Is Present In All Of Us. A Duty To Strive Is The Duty Of Us All. I Felt A Call To That Duty.
Strive
Duty
Obligation
Don’t Criticize Them; They Are Just What We Would Be Under Similar Circumstances.
Criticism
Would Be
Circumstances
Laughter Can Be Used To Sooth The Mind And Get Rid Of Those Awful Thoughts.
Laughter
Mind
Awful
The Written Word May Be Man's Greatest Invention. It Allows Us To Converse With The Dead, The Absent, And The Unborn.
Men
May
Invention
There Is A Vague Popular Belief That Lawyers Are Necessarily Dishonest. I Say Vague, Because When We Consider To What Extent Confidence And Honors Are Reposed In And Conferred Upon Lawyers By The People, It Appears Improbable That Their Impression Of Dishonesty Is Very Distinct And Vivid. Yet The Impression Is Common, Almost Universal.
People
Honor
Vivid
As President, I Have No Eyes But Constitutional Eyes; I Cannot See You.
War
Eye
Civil War
In Regard To This Great Book, I Have But To Say, It Is The Best Gift God Has Given To Man.
Book
Men
Presidential
We Cannot Ask A Man What He Will Do, And If We Should, And He Should Answer Us, We Should Despise Him For It. Therefore We Must Take A Man Whose Opinions Are Known.
Men
Answers
Opinion
I Never Tire Of Reading Tom Paine.
Reading
Tire
Paine
The Principles Of Jefferson Are The Definitions And Axioms Of Free Society.
Principles
Definitions
Free Society
Familiarize Yourselves With The Chains Of Bondage And You Prepare Your Own Limbs To Wear Them. Accustomed To Trample On The Rights Of Others, You Have Lost The Genius Of Your Own Independence And Become The Fit Subjects Of The First Cunning Tyrant Who Rises Among You.
Rights
Tyrants
Justice
Most Folks Are As Happy As They Make Up Their Minds To Be.
Inspirational
Motivational
Positive
I Cannot Imagine Anyone Looking At The Sky And Denying God.
Sky
Aviation
Flight
All Creation Is A Mine, And Every Man A Miner. The Whole Earth, And All Within It, Upon It, And Round About It, Including Himself ... Are The Infinitely Various "leads" From Which, Man, From The First, Was To Dig Out His Destiny.
Destiny
Men
Discovery
I Must Keep Some Standard Of Principle Fixed Within Myself.
Principles
Fixed
Standards
A Child Is A Person Who Is Going To Carry On What You Have Started ... He Will Assume Control Of Your Cities, States And Nations. He Is Going To Move In And Take Over Your Churches, Schools, Universities, And Corporations ... The Fate Of Humanity Is In His Hands.
Children
Moving
School
All My Life I Have Tried To Pluck A Thistle And Plant A Flower Wherever The Flower Would Grow In Thought And Mind.
Flower
Garden
Mind
I Am Busily Engaged In The Study Of The Bible. I Believe It Is God's Word Because It Finds Me Where I Am.
Bible
Believe
Presidential
The Legalized Liquor Business Is The Tragedy Of Our Civilization. Alcohol Is The Greatest And Most Blighting Curse Of Our Modern Civilization. The Liquor Seller Is Simply And Only A Privileged Malefactor - A Criminal.
Civilization
Alcohol
Tragedy
We Cannot Escape History.
History
It Has Been My Experience That Folks Who Have No Vices Have Very Few Virtues.
Life And Love
Book
Athlete
Persuasion, Kind, Unassuming Persuasion, Should Be Adopted To Influence The Conduct Of Men. The Opposite Course Would Be A Reversal Of Human Nature, Which Is God's Decree And Can Never Be Reversed.
Men
Opposites
Would Be
I Cannot Bring Myself To Believe That Any Human Being Lives Who Would Do Me Any Harm.
Believe
Harm
Humans
When You Lack Interest In The Case The Job Will Very Likely Lack Skill And Diligence In The Performance.
Jobs
Skills
Diligence
When I Do Good, I Feel Good. When I Do Bad, I Feel Bad. That's My Religion.
Inspirational
Positive
Religious
War, At The Best, Is Terrible, And This War Of Ours, In Its Magnitude And In Its Duration, Is One Of The Most Terrible.
War
Duration
Terrible
I Hold That While A Man Exists, It Is His Duty To Improve Not Only His Own Condition, But To Assist In Ameliorating Mankind.
Men
Duty
Mankind
My Great Concern Is Not Whether You Have Failed, But Whether You Are Content With Your Failure.
Inspirational
Perseverance
Failure
The Struggle Of Today, Is Not Altogether For Today - It Is For A Vast Future Also. With A Reliance On Providence, All The More Firm And Earnest, Let Us Proceed In The Great Task Which Events Have Devolved Upon Us.
Struggle
Liberty
Events
As We Keep Or Break The Sabbath Day We Nobly Save Or Meanly Lose The Last Best Hope By Which Man Rises.
Men
Lasts
Break
I Hope To Stand Firm Enough To Not Go Backward, And Yet Not Go Forward Fast Enough To Wreck The Country's Cause.
Hope
Country
Wrecks
Whereas, The Senate Of The United States, Devoutly Recognizing The Supreme Authority And Just Government Of Almighty God, In All The Affairs Of Men And Of Nations, Has, By A Resolution, Requested The President To Designate And Set Apart A Day For National Prayer And Humiliation.
Bible
God
Religious
Our Adversaries [ The Confederate States Of America ] Have Adopted Some Declarations Of Independence In Which, Unlike The Good Old One Penned By Jefferson, They Omit The Words "all Men Are Created Equal." Why? They Have Adopted A Temporary National Constitution, In The Preamble Of Which, Unlike Our Good Old One, Signed By Washington, They Omit "we, The People," And Substitute "we, The Deputies Of The Sovereign And Independent States." Why? Why This Deliberate Pressing Out Of View, The Rights Of Men, And The Authority Of The People?
Independent
Men
America
And By Virtue Of The Power, And For The Purpose Aforesaid, I Do Order And Declare That All Persons Held As Slaves Within Said Designated States, And Parts Of States, Are, And Henceforward Shall Be Free; And That The Executive Government Of The United States, Including The Military And Naval Authorities Thereof, Will Recognize And Maintain The Freedom Of Said Persons.
Military
War
Government
And I Am Glad To Know That There Is A System Of Labor - Where The Laborer Can Strike If He Wants To! I Would To God That Such A System Prevailed All Over The World.
Hard Work
World
Want
To Lead, You Must Touch Men's Hearts.
Heart
Men
Touch Me
Our Common Country Is In Great Peril, Demanding The Loftiest Views, And Boldest Action To Bring It Speedy Relief. Once Relieved, Its Form Of Government Is Saved To The World; Its Beloved History, And Cherished Memories, Are Vindicated; And Its Happy Future Fully Assured, And Rendered Inconceivably Grand.
Country
Memories
Government
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