I am like a man so busy in letting rooms in one end of his house, that he can't stop to put out the fire that is burning the other.
Abraham LincolnRead
Certainly there is no contending against the Will of God; but still there is some difficulty in ascertaining, and applying it, to particular cases.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Understanding God's will can be challenging, especially in specific situations.
Abraham Lincoln reflects on the complexities of discerning and applying the Will of God in our lives. While he acknowledges the ultimate authority of divine will, he recognizes the difficulties inherent in interpreting that will for our individual circumstances and making sense of it amidst human experiences.
Themes
WillGodUnderstandingDifficultyApplication
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion on spirituality and decision-making, one might quote Lincoln to emphasize the challenges in aligning actions with divine intention.
More from Abraham Lincoln
All quotes βSir, 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.
Abraham LincolnRead
Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.
Abraham LincolnRead
How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.
Abraham LincolnRead
For it has been said, all that a man hath will he give for his life; and while all contribute of their substance the soldier puts his life at stake, and often yields it up in his country's cause. The highest merit, then is due to the soldier.
Abraham LincolnRead
And having thus chosen our course, without guile, and with pure purpose, let us renew our trust in God, and go forward without fear, and with manly hearts.
Abraham LincolnRead
Similar quotes
The average is that which no person quite ever is.
Robert Anton WilsonRead
Attainment is followed by neglect, possession by disgust, and the malicious remark of the Greek epigrammatist on marriage may be applied to many another course of life, that its two days of happiness are the first and the last
Samuel JohnsonRead
Right here and now, one quanta away, there is raging a universe of active intelligence that is transhuman, hyperdimensional, and extremely alien... What is driving religious feeling today is a wish for contact with this other universe.
Terence MckennaRead
Prayer is the force as real as terrestrial gravity. As a physician, I have seen men, after all other therapy had failed, lifted out of disease and melancholy by the serene effort of prayer. Only in prayer do we achieve that complete and harmonious assembly of body, mind and spirit which gives the frail human reed its unshakable strength.
Alexis CarrelRead
I wanted to pray for an hour, but I keep thinking and thinking, and always sick thoughts, and my head aches - what is the use of praying? - it's only a sin! It is strange, too, that I am not sleepy: in great, too great sorrow, after the first outbursts one is always sleepy. Men condemned to death, they say, sleep very soundly on the last night. And so it must be, it si the law of nature, otherwise their strength would not hold out... I lay down on the sofa but I did not sleep...
Fyodor DostoevskyRead
What's in store for me in the direction I don't take?
Jack KerouacRead