Luke Mohan > Recent Status Updates

A man has not time to spend half his life in quarrels. If any man ceases to attack me, I never remember the past against him.

“Should my success be less than I desire, and expect, the least I can say is, the fault is not with you.”

No man resolve to make the most of himself, can spare time for personal contention. Still less can you afford to take all the consequences, including the vitiating of his temper and the loss of self-control. Yield larger things to which you can show no more than equal right; and yield lesser ones, though clearly your own. Better give your path to a dog, then be bitten by him in contesting for the right.

“There could be no greater madness, [Stanton] reasoned, ”than for a man to encounter what I do for anything less than motives that overlap time and look forward to eternity.”

While “felicity of speech” was usually linked to “high culture”…[Lincoln] possesses a far more valuable “felicity of thought”.

Adhere to your purpose and you will soon feel as well as you ever did. On the contrary, if you falter, and give up, you will lose the power of keeping any resolution, and will regret it all your life.

Spiritualism [i.e. mediums, séances] would reach epic proportions during the civil war, fueled perhaps by the overwhelming casualties.

Grant telegraphed back the historic words that would define both his character and career: “No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted.”

“There is Jackson with his Virginians, standing like a stone wall,“ General Barnard Bee [who was mortally wounded at Bull Run] reportedly shouted to inspire his troops, and both confederate and union soldiers thereafter referred to Jackson as “Stonewall“ Jackson.

Chase: “but if the issue be distinctly presented – death to the American republic or death to slavery, slavery must die.”

The day the war claimed its first casualties was also the day when “the censorship of the press was exercised for the first time at the telegraph office,”. A newspaper was not permitted to release the names of the dead.

It was Andrew Jackson’s motto, he reminded, that “if you temporize, you are lost. “

Lincoln built the armature of his inaugural out of four documents: the Constitution, Andrew Jackson’s nullification proclamation, Daniel Webster‘s memorable “liberty and union forever“ speech, and Clay’s address to the Senate arguing for the compromise of 1850.

Lincoln’s departing remarks from Springfield: “ here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington… I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.

Seward,” I have advised Mr. L that I will not decline. It is inevitable. I will try to save freedom and my country.“

Once Stephen Douglas knew he would lose the election he announced that “Mr. Lincoln is the next president“. He then went campaigning in the deep South for the survival of the union, urging southerners to “frustrate the scheme” of secession.

Music carries words over miles and into hearts and memories.

When she spoke her voice was clear. “I do this so you cannot help but hear. a wise man views a moonless night with fear.

It’s the questions we can’t answer that teach us the most. They teach us how to think. If you give a man an answer, all he gains is a little fact. But give him a question and he’ll look for his own answers.

…nothing in the world is harder than convincing someone of an unfamiliar truth.

After I finished a letter or a song, I would write it again. I would dull its edges a little, remove an honesty or two.

Pride is always a better lever against the nobility than reason.

The Amyr- Motto “For the Greater Good” - ends justify the means. This attitude is not endorsed explicitly, but Kvothe seems to at least sympathize.

Books are a poor substitute for female companionship, but they are easier to find.

We love what we love. Reason does not enter into it. In many ways, unwise love is the truest love. Anyone can love a thing because. That’s as easy as putting a penny in your pocket. But to love something despite. To know the flaws and love them too. That is rare and pure and perfect.

“With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed,” he said. “Consequently he who mounds public sentiment, goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions.”