On this 217th Day of Lincoln's Birthday, I chose some words of wisdom from President Lincoln from my archives as I am proud to present this retrospective from he team at the Daily Stoic Put together a beautiful retrospective on life on the 217th Birthday of President Lincoln:
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Some of Abraham Lincoln’s last words hold a poignant reminder for us all. As he sat in his box at Ford’s Theater waiting for the play to begin, he turned to his wife and said, “How I should like to visit Jerusalem sometime.”
Within minutes, an assassin’s bullet would strike his brain. Within hours, he would be dead.
There were many reasons why this great man—who was born 217 years ago today—never found time to visit Jerusalem. He had to teach himself to read, lift himself from poverty, battle depression, and face the gravest threat to American freedom yet known. He freed the slaves and ensured that democracy would not perish. He also made it a priority to be not just present, but conscientious in raising his four children (we have a Daily Dad video on 5 Parenting Lessons we can learn from Lincoln). These were all reasons he had to postpone that trip, just as you have reasons for waiting to do this or delaying that.
And yet life has a way of stripping all our reasons bare, of humbling our plans and assumptions. We must live, as Marcus Aurelius said, as if death hangs over us. Because it does. We cannot put off until tomorrow, he said, what we can do today—whether that’s being good (our highest priority), telling people we love them, or going to places we wish to see. No one knows what the future holds. No one knows how much time we have left.
Do not delay. Do not wish. Do not wait. Do it now. While you still have time. While there is still a chance.
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