Mr. Lincoln once remarked to Mr. Noah Brooks, one of his most intimate
personal friends: “I should be the most presumptuous blockhead upon this
footstool if I for one day thought that I could discharge the duties
which have come upon me, since I came to this place, without the aid and
enlightenment of One who is stronger and wiser than all others.”
He said on another occasion: “I am very sure that if I do not go away
from here a wiser man, I shall go away a better man, from having learned
here what a very poor sort of a man I am.”