If you sometimes get discouraged, consider this fellow …

He dropped out of grade school.

Ran a country store.

Went broke.

Took 15 years to pay off his bills.

Took a wife.

Unhappy marriage.

Ran for House.

Lost twice.

Ran for Senate.

Lost twice.

Delivered speech that became a classic. Audience indifferent.

Attacked daily by the press and despised by half the country.

Despite all this, imagine how many people all over the world have been inspired by this awkward, rumpled, brooding man who signed his name simply, A. Lincoln.

***

I saw this in a magazine or newspaper years ago, cut it out and had it on my inspiration board. Lost it. Then stumbled upon it again recently on the internet. Author unknown.

***

Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865, 16th President of the United States (1861 until his assassination in 1865), leading the country through the American Civil War, preserving the Union. In 1863, issued the Emancipation Proclamation, abolishing slavery.