"An adult friend of Lincoln's: "Life was to him a school. - Doris Kearns Goodwin

I hope to stand firm enough not to go backward, and yet not go forward fast enough to wreck the country's cause.

Mental health, contemporary psychiatrists tell us, consists of the ability to adapt to the inevitable stresses and misfortunes of life. It does not mean freedom from anxiety and depression, but only the ability to cope with these afflictions in a healthy way.

As he had done so many times before, Lincoln withstood the storm of defeat by replacing anguish over an unchangeable past with hope in an uncharted future.