Men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them. To deny it, however, in this case, is to deny that there is a God governing the world. It is a truth which I thought needed to be told; and as whatever of humiliation, there is in it, falls most directly on myself, I thought others might afford for me to tell it.

—Abraham Lincoln, from a letter written March 15, 1865 (CWAL VIII:356), 31 days prior to his assassination.