This is a great read for anyone that wants to learn more about the life of Abraham Lincoln through the great storytelling skills of Dale Carnegie.
Flow: 5/5
Actionability: 3/5
Mindset: 4/5
Some of My Highlights:
“Lincoln… had walked miles to borrow books and then read them at night…”
“For years, there in Indiana, Abraham Lincoln endured more terrible poverty than did thousands of the slaves whom he would one day liberate.”
“Having no knives or forks, they ate with their fingers, and with fingers that were seldom clean, for water was hard to get and they had no soap.”
“When Lincoln was fifteen he knew his alphabet and could read a little but with difficulty. He could not write at all.”
“Lincoln and his sister walked four miles through the forests, night and morning, to study under the new teacher…”
“He memorized and recited his rhymes, and his essays attracted attention.”
“The little advance I now have upon this store of education. I have picked up from time to time under the pressure of necessity.”
“Yet, during these broken and irregular periods, he had developed one of the most valuable assets any man can have, even from a university education: a love of knowledge and a thirst for learning.”
“This book gave him instruction in public speaking, and introduced him to the renowned speeches of Cicero and Demosthenes and those of Shakespeare’s characters.”
“He carried the scrap-book with him and studied it until he could repeat many long poems and speeches by heart.”
“…he wanted a job where he could meet people and gather a crowd around him and keep them roaring at his stories.”
“But to him the most astounding thing of all was this: neither Shakespeare nor Burns had gone to college. Neither of them had had much more schooling and education than he. At times he dared to think that perhaps he too, the unschooled son of illiterate Tom Lincoln, might be fitted for finer things.”
“In fact, two years before Lincoln became President, about the only thing that the average American knew about him was that he had once debated with the brilliant and powerful Stephen A. Douglas.”
“Lincoln did not belong to any church, and avoided religious discussions even with his best friends.”