“When you have got an elephant by the hind leg, and he is trying to run away, it's best to let him run.”

—  Abraham Lincoln

Quoted by Charles A. Dana in his book [http://books.google.com/books?id=rxpCAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA274&q=elephant
1860s

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Abraham Lincoln618
16th President of the United States 1809–1865

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