Abraham Lincoln’s Advice on Learning, Work, Smartphones, and Anxiety

Lincoln struggled with mental health, public ridicule, and grief, but he never stopped building a better life.

"Talking It Over" by Enoch Wood Perry, 1872. Public domain

When most Americans hear the name Abraham Lincoln, certain images jump to mind. He’s the rail splitter who made it to the White House, served as president during the Civil War, wrote the Gettysburg Address, and was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. He was tall and lanky and often wore a stovepipe hat. His statue in Washington is encased by a facsimile of a Greek temple, the image of which appears on the back of our $5 bill. On the front is his careworn face with its sunken cheeks, trim beard, and rather large right ear.

Dig deeper, and we find a man whose words and life have much to teach us today, particularly teens and 20-somethings. Let’s take a look.

Get Yourself an Education

Had Lincoln depended only on his bits and pieces of formal schooling for his learning, he likely would have ended up semi-literate. Inspired by his stepmother, Sarah, and driven by a burning desire to read and to write well, he instead put the meager resources of his prairie cabin home to good use to educate himself. He read repeatedly from the Bible, “Aesop’s Fables,” the plays and poems of Shakespeare, “Robinson Crusoe,” and a few other books, all of which remained abiding favorites.