Where was Lincoln?

[David Lockmiller]

President Lincoln was simply asked to deliver "a few appropriate remarks" at Gettysburg. The main speaker was Edward Everett, one the nation's best orators. Everett later wrote Lincoln that, “I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.”

[David Lockmiller]

When and where was the following statement made by Abraham Lincoln? Plus, fill in the blank!

In middle age, Lincoln admitted that "[_______] are the only things that cannot hurt me that I am afraid of."

[Gene C]

Women
Couldn't find the when or where.

[Steve]

I can't find that quote in the Collected Works, so I don't think Lincoln said it at all.

[RJNorton]

I could not find this quote in Recollected Words of Abraham Lincoln by Virginia Fehrenbacher and Don E. Fehrenbacher.

[AussieMick]

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/675231-...a-woman-is

“Not married until 33, Abraham Lincoln said, "A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that cannot hurt me.”
― Shelby Foote, The Civil War, Vol. 1: Fort Sumter to Perryville

[David Lockmiller]

Thank you, one and all, for your efforts to locate the source of this quote.

I became interested in this topic and recently purchased a book on the subject. But I had trouble reading the book to find the specific information I was seeking.

I then hit on the idea of Professor Michael Burlingame and his two volume work, Abraham Lincoln: A Life. I hardly ever read anything in Volume One because I was most interested in Lincoln's life as President and the Civil War.

But then I thought since the book was written in chronological order as a general rule, I would make the research effort in Volume One. I began with "Ann Rutledge" as the search term.

This led me to a section of the book at page 97 with the subtitle "Romance." (A very good read on this subject from pages 97-101.) The section begins as follows:

In Illinois, as in Indiana, the bashful Lincoln paid little attention to young women. (In middle age, he admitted that "women are the only things that cannot hurt me that I am afraid of.") [footnote 72. Fred R. Jeliff, "The Lincoln-Douglas Debate," Galesburg Republican-Register, 10 Oct. 1896.]

So, it would appear that the source of Mr. Jeliff's quote is indeterminate. My apology.