Presidents and First Ladies Trivia

[David Lockmiller]

(02-07-2022 05:13 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Here is another quote that refers to Abraham Lincoln. Who said this?

[Answer: Walt Whitman.]

"Why, if the old Greeks had had this man what trilogies of plays—what epics would have been made out of him!"

Doris Kearns Goodwin refers to Leo Tolstoy in her book, Team of Rivals, at page 747, as “the greatest writer of the age.” On page 748 of her book, she quotes Leo Tolstoy’s opinion on the subject of President Abraham Lincoln’s greatness:

“We are still too near to his greatness,” Tolstoy concluded, “but after a few centuries more our posterity will find him considerably bigger than we do. His genius is still too strong and too powerful for the common understanding; just as the sun is too hot when its light beams directly on us.”

(Goodwin’s Source: Leo Tolstoy, quoted in The World, New York, February 7, 1908.)

It would appear that Walt Whitman and Leo Tolstoy thought much alike about the greatness of President Abraham Lincoln. Unfortunately for mankind, Tolstoy's prediction may well prove to be correct.

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