First Friends Quotes

“Joshua’s mother, Lucy Speed, took a special liking to Lincoln, even as she noted his deep sadness. Near the end of his visit, she presented him with an Oxford Bible, saying it was the best cure for depression he would ever find. Not a churchgoer but nevertheless a profoundly spiritual man, Lincoln was moved by the gift. Two decades later, he would send Mrs. Speed a photo of himself after his election as president: “To my very good friend Mrs. Lucy G. Speed (from) whose pious hands I received an Oxford Bible twenty years ago.”
― Gary Ginsberg, First Friends: The Powerful, Unsung (And Unelected) People Who Shaped Our Presidents

“Hawthorne finally found his life’s calling. “I do not want to be a doctor and live by men’s diseases; nor a minister to live by their sins; nor a lawyer and live by their quarrels,” he wrote passionately to his mother. “So I don’t see that there is anything left for me but to be an author.”
― Gary Ginsberg, First Friends: The Powerful, Unsung (And Unelected) People Who Shaped Our Presidents