#abraham

A farce or comedy is best played; a tragedy is best read at home. ↗

— Abraham Lincoln

#comedy #farce #tragedy #home

One notorious apikoros named Hiwa al-Balkhi, writing in ninth-century Persia, offered two hundred awkward questions to the faithful. He drew upon himself the usual thunderous curses—'may his name be forgotten, may his bones be worn to nothing'—along with detailed refutations and denunciations by Abraham ibn Ezra and others. These exciting anathemas, of course, ensured that his worrying 'questions' would remain current for as long as the Orthodox commentaries would be read. In this way, rather as when Maimonides says that the Messiah will come but that 'he may tarry,' Jewishness contrives irony at its own expense. If there is one characteristic of Jews that I admire, it is that irony is seldom if ever wasted on them. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#atheism #curses #heretics #hiwi-al-balkhi #irony

For when God is said by these things to try men and prove them, to see what is in their hearts and whether they will keep His commandments or no, we are not to understand, that it is for His own information, or that He may obtain evidence Himself of their sincerity (for he needs no trials for His information); but chiefly for their conviction, and to exhibit evidence to their consciences... So when God tempted or tried Abraham with that difficult command of offering up his son, it was not for His satisfaction, whether he feared God or no, but for Abraham's own greater satisfaction and comfort, and the more clear manifestation of the favour of God to him. ↗

— Jonathan Edwards

#adversity #faith #trials #faith

You don't get drown by falling into a river. You get drown by remaining there. Falling accidentally and rising immediately was what distinguished Thomas Edison and Abraham Lincoln from the rest. ↗

— Israelmore Ayivor

#distinct #distinguish #don-t-quit #drown #excellence

The Bible is not my book nor Christianity my profession. ↗

— Abraham Lincoln

#atheism #bible

We were not fathers also to convey the promise, as Abraham was; nor although the promise, as collectively taken, had belonged to us, as to Abraham it did. ↗

— Thomas Goodwin

#also #although #belonged #collectively #convey

I therefore shared fully the intense chagrin of the New York and other State delegations when, on the third ballot, Abraham Lincoln received a larger vote than Seward. ↗

— Henry Villard

#abraham lincoln #ballot #chagrin #fully #i

We all remember Abraham Lincoln as the leader who saved our Union. Founder of the Republican Party. ↗

— Barack Obama

#abraham lincoln #founder #leader #lincoln #our

No man made great by death offers more hope to lowly pride than does Abraham Lincoln; for while living he was himself so simple as often to be dubbed a fool. ↗

— Thomas Vernor Smith

#abraham lincoln #death #does #dubbed #fool

When Lincoln was asked if God was on the Union’s side, Lincoln’s unvarying response was that what was really important was whether they were on God’s side. ↗

— Joe L. Wheeler

#faith #god #history #courage