lift toward greatness
the visionary, without
narrow jealousy
He had in him all the lift toward greatness of the visionary, without any of the visionary’s fanaticism or egotism, without any of the visionary’s narrow jealousy of the practical man and inability to strive in practical fashion for the realization of an ideal.
No more practical man ever lived than this homely backwoods idealist
but he had nothing in common with those practical men
whose consciences are warped until they fail to distinguish between good and evil,
fail to understand that strength, ability, shrewdness,
whether in the world of business or of politics,
only serve to make their possessor a more noxious, a more evil member of the community,
if they are not guided and controlled by a fine and high moral sense.
President Theodore Roosevelt on President Abraham Lincoln from remarks made at the cornerstone laying of the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace Memorial, February 12, 1909.
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