Climb high as we like our ladder will still require to rest on the ground; and it is probable that the keenest intellectual intuition, and the most delicate throb of passion would, if analysis could be carried so far, be discovered to have its connections with the rather material affair that we know as the body.
Lincoln took the postmastership for the sake of reading all the papers that came to town.

He read everything he could lay his hands on; the Bible, Shakespeare, Pilgrim's Progress, Life of Washington and Life of Franklin, Life of Henry Clay, AEsop's Fables; he read them over and over again until he could almost repeat them by heart; but he never read a novel in his life.

His education came from the newspapers and from his contact with men and things.

After he read a book he would write out an analysis of it.

What a grand sight to see this long, lank, backwoods student, lying before the fire in a log cabin without floor or windows, after everybody else was abed, devouring books he had borrowed but could not afford to buy! "I have been watching the careers of young men by the thousand in this busy city of New York for over thirty years," said Dr.Cuyler, "and I find that the chief difference between the successful and the failures lies in the single element of staying power.