I’d seem to achieve more if only you’d expect less.

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst:

June 10

At the battle of Antietam the Union general, George McClellan, with 80,000 troops confronted the South’s 45,000 [estimated to be a mighty host in excess of 100,000]. Although McClellan stumbled into possession of the South’s master battle plan, for some reason he kept approximately 20,000 Union soldiers in reserve - they never fired a shot. The battle, Lee’s first invasion of the North, was a Union victory in that Lee was driven back to his native Virginia; it was less than the stupendous victory it would have been if a moderately competent general had pursued his advantage and destroyed the Army of Northern Virginia, far and away the more fearsome military force the South possessed. As Lincoln more than once was forced to concede, ‘we must work with the tools we are given.’

‘Wisdom comes with winters.’

- Oscar Wilde