would-be-but-couldn't-be

Updated: March 15, 2026

There is nothing of the shabby-genteel, the would-be-but-couldn't-be fine gentleman; he is the great American Demos, honest, shrewd, homely, wise, humorous, cheerful, brave, blundering occasionally, but through blunders struggling onwards towards what he believes the right."

Baron Godfrey Rathbone Benson Charnwood - Abraham Lincoln