I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for the day.
~~ Abraham Lincoln ~~ (1809 - 1865)
What a classic quote! All of us experience days in our lives when everything seems to be falling apart, nothing seems to work and we feel helpless as if we have nowhere to go. The quote above is proof that some days even great ones like Abraham Lincoln feel helpless. But that did not prevent him from becoming a great President.
Life has a habit of throwing curves at all of us; that is just the way how life works. We must never give up in despair, no matter how trapped we might feel. Instead we must carry on with the hope and determination that this too shall pass. We lose only if we give up and stop making concerted efforts to change or rectify the difficult circumstances that we may find ourselves trapped in.
Life is essentially a sort of a battle with its little ups and downs here and there. I think there is no need for us to worry too much about such ups and downs; when one door closes down usually another door opens up. We just need to look around a bit harder.
Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.
~~ Abraham Lincoln ~~ (1809 - 1865)
While Abraham Lincoln aimed his advice mainly at Americans, it’s equally applicable to other nations. Obviously we have not paid any attention to his advice. Instead we have gone in the opposite direction and encourage litigation for anything and everything! While Americans may be leading in the field of litigation, many other developed and even developing countries aren’t far behind.
Just imagine how much money could be saved if the lawyers were to persuade the litigants to compromise instead of proceeding ahead with litigation. It will also boost productivity as fewer juries will be needed thus fewer jurors and fewer witnesses will have to take time off work. It will also help in reducing bitterness between the opposing parties as in a compromise everybody feels like a winner whereas in litigation one party wins and the other loses.
Don’t hold your breath though as it ain’t going to happen. Just because Abraham Lincoln gave us good advice doesn’t mean we are going to follow it or even make any attempts to follow it! :-)
You may fool all the people some of the time, you can even fool some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.
~~ Abraham Lincoln ~~ (1809 - 1865)
This quote has proven itself to be very true over the ages. You can fool all the people for some of the time especially if you are in a position of trust or power because basically people tend to believe you or, in some cases, people may not have a choice but to believe you.
If you mis-use that position of trust or power to fool people then after some time the facts will start to appear that will unmask you and you’ll lose confidence and respect of most of the people. And once the people lose confidence in you, they won’t believe you after that even when you may be stating true facts; it’s like the shepherd boy who cried wolf too many times.
Unfortunately, the fooling of the people is not limited to just individuals in positions of power and trust, it can be a corporation or a whole industry. A good example of an industry that kept fooling the people for decades is the tobacco industry which kept insisting, in spite of the facts to contrary, that cigarette smoking causes no ill health effects!
So, yes, you can fool all the people for some of the time but you will eventually be unmasked.
