Longing to escape the toilsome world of subsistence farming and make something of himself, Lincoln prophetically told Elizabeth Crawford, “I don’t always intend to delve, grub, shuck corn, split rails, and the like.” She remembered that “Abe was ambitious, sought to outstrip and override others.” His friend Joseph Gentry had a similar recollection: “Abe wa[s]n’t fond of work and often told me he never intended to make his living that way—he often said he would get some profession, in fact his whole mind seemed bent on learning and education.” Sophie Hanks recalled that her cousin Abe “always had a natural idea that he was going to be something.” In 1829, Lincoln wrote this couplet in a friend’s copybook:
Source: Abraham Lincoln ∶ A Life ▫𓂃
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