evidence: A Facebook post credits former President Abraham Lincoln with saying, "We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses." [...] Indeed, the DCNF searched the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library’s digital archive for the words "thorn bushes" but turned up no results. The saying does not appear in Lincoln’s collected works at the University of Michigan either. [...] The quote may actually have originated with French journalist and author Alphonse Karr, according to the website Quote Investigator. A variation of the saying appears in his 1853 book "Lettres Écrites De Mon Jardin," where he writes, "You complain about seeing thorny rose bushes; me, I rejoice and give thanks to the gods that thorns have roses."