Words from Mount Rushmore – Abraham Lincoln
All month we’ve honored Presidents Day with Wednesday’s Words of Wisdom from the Mount Rushmore presidents. Today’s words come from President Abraham Lincoln, the last face on the right.Mount Rushmore is known as the “Shrine of Democracy,” an iconic symbol of the United States carved into the southeastern face of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota’s Black Hills National Forest.
Sculptor Gutzon Borglum created the design depicting the faces of U.S. Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt and oversaw the project’s execution from 1927 to 1941 with the help of his son, Lincoln Borglum.
Borglum along with four hundred workers used dynamite and pneumatic hammers to blast through the rock quickly along with the traditional tools of drills and chisels as the heads of the four presidential heads took shape in the face of Mount Rushmore.
Arduous and dangerous work, it is amazing that no lives were lost during the construction. If you ever see it in person, you will stand in awe as I did.
Presidents Day Quotes
Last Monday we celebrated President’s Day. Most people look at the day as a tribute to all who have ever served in the office of the President.
Those of you as old as me will remember we used to honor only two presidential birthdays in February — George Washington on February 22 and Abraham Lincoln on February 16. Modern day President’s Day falls between those two birthdays.
Yesterday was Lincoln’s birthday and Washington’s birthday will be Monday, I offer these Wednesday words of wisdom from both two presidents.
George Washington (1789-1797)
“Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for ’tis better to be alone than in bad company.”
“Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, called conscience.”
Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865)
“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.”
“A capacity, and taste, for reading, gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others. It is the key, or one of the keys, to the already solved problems. And not only so. It gives a relish, and facility, for successfully pursuing the [yet] unsolved ones.”
–September 30, 1859 Address before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society