Abraham Lincoln Quotes

Agriculture
"This leads to the further reflection, that no other human 
occupation opens so wide a field for the profitable and 
agreeable combination of labor with cultivated thought, 
as agriculture. I know of nothing so pleasant to the mind, 
as the discovery of anything which is at once new and 
valuable -- nothing which so lightens and sweetens toil, 
as the hopeful pursuit of such discovery. And how vast, 
and how varied a field is agriculture, for such discovery. 
The mind, already trained to thought, in the country 
school, or higher school, cannot fail to find there 
an exhaustless source of profitable enjoyment."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: September 30, 1859 - 
Address before the Wisconsin State 
Agricultural Society

Ambition
"Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. 
Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I have 
no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my 
fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. 
How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition, is yet 
to be developed."
Source:: March 9, 1832 - First Political Announcement

The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself 
every way he can, never suspecting that anybody 
wishes to hinder him.
Abraham lincoln
Source:Letter to William Herdon, July 1848

You are ambitious, which, within reasonable bounds, 
does good rather than harm.
Abraham lincoln
Source:Letter to General Joseph Hooker, Jan 26, 1863

Americian Women
"I have never studied the art of paying compliments to 
women; but I must say that if all that has been said by 
orators and poets since the creation of the world in 
praise of women were applied to the women of 
America, it would not do them justice for their conduct 
during this war. I will close by saying, God bless the 
women of America!" 
Abraham Lincoln
Source: March 18, 1864
Remarks at Closing of Sanitary Fair, Washington D.C.

Angels
"The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every 
battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart 
and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet 
swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, 
as surely they will be, by the better angels of 
our nature."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: March 4, 1861 - Lincoln's First Inaugural Address

Bible
"In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, it is 
the best gift God has given to man. All the good the 
Savior gave to the world was communicated 
through this book." 
Abraham Lincoln
Source: September 7, 1864 Reply to Loyal Colored 
People of Baltimore upon Presentation of a Bible

Bixby
"I have been shown in the files of the War Department 
a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts, 
that you are the mother of five sons who have died 
gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and 
fruitless must be any words of mine which should 
attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so 
overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to 
you the consolation that may be found in the thanks 
of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our 
Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your 
bereavement, and leave you only the cherished 
memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride 
that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice 
upon the altar of Freedom." 
Abraham Lincoln
Source: November 21, 1864 - Letter to Mrs. Lydia Bixby

Black Hawk War
"Then came the Black-Hawk war; and I was elected 
a Captain of Volunteers -- a success which gave me 
more pleasure than any I have had since."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: December 20, 1859 - Autobiography 

Blade Of Grass
"Every blade of grass is a study; and to produce two, 
where there was but one, is both a profit and a pleasure."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: September 30, 1859 - Address before the Wisconsin 
State Agricultural Society

Christian
"That I am not a member of any Christian Church, is true; 
but I have never denied the truth of the Scriptures; and I 
have never spoken with intentional disrespect of religion 
in general, or any denomination of Christians in particular."
Abraham Lincoln
July 31, 1846 - Handbill Replying to Charges of Infidelity
 
"I do not think I could myself, be brought to support a man
for office, whom I knew to be an open enemy of, and scoffer 
at, religion."
Abraham Lincoln
July 31, 1846 - Handbill Replying to Charges of Infidelity

"I am much indebted to the good Christian people of the 
country for their constant prayers and consolations; and 
to no one of them, more than to yourself."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: September 4, 1864 - Letter to Eliza Gurney




Civil War
"In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and 
not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The 
Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict 
without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no 
oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, 
while I shall have the most solemn one to 'preserve, 
protect, and defend it'."
Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln's First Inaugural Address

"I would like to speak in terms of praise due to the many 
brave officers and soldiers who have fought in the 
cause of the war."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: July 7, 1863 - Response to a Serenade

"There is more involved in this contest than is realized 
by every one. There is involved in this struggle the 
question whether your children and my children shall 
enjoy the privileges we have enjoyed."
Abraham Lincoln
August 22, 1864  
Speech to the One Hundred Sixty-sixth Ohio Regiment 

"We have, as all will agree, a free Government, where 
every man has a right to be equal with every other man. 
In this great struggle, this form of Government and 
every form of human right is endangered if our 
enemies succeed."
Abraham Lincoln
August 22, 1864  
Speech to the One Hundred Sixty-sixth Ohio Regiment

"Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would 
make war rather than let the nation survive; and the 
other would accept war rather than let it perish. And 
the war came .... Fondly do we hope -- fervently do 
we pray -- that this mighty scourge of war may 
speedily pass away."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: March 4, 1865 - Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address

Clay
"Mr. Clay's lack of a more perfect early education, 
however it may be regretted generally, teaches at 
least one profitable lesson; it teaches that in this 
country, one can scarcely be so poor, but that, if he 
will, he can acquire sufficient education to get 
through the world respectably."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: July 6, 1852 - Eulogy on Henry Clay

Colonization
"I cannot make it better known than it already is that 
I strongly favor colonization." 
Abraham Lincoln
December 1, 1862
Lincoln's Second Annual Message to Congress

Conservatism
"What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old 
and tried, against the new and untried?"
Abraham Lincoln
Source: February 27, 1860 - Cooper Union Address

Constitution
"I hold, that in contemplation of universal law, and of 
the Constitution, the Union of these States is perpetual."
Abraham Lincoln
March 4, 1861 - Lincoln's First Inaugural Address 

"I therefore consider that in view of the Constitution 
and the laws, the Union is unbroken; and to the extent 
of my ability I shall take care, as the Constitution itself 
expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the 
Union be faithfully executed in all the States."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: March 4, 1861 - Lincoln's First Inaugural Address 

"The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was 
formed in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. 
It was matured and continued by the Declaration of 
Independence in 1776."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: March 4, 1861 - Lincoln's First Inaugural Address 

"I freely acknowledge myself the servant of the people, 
according to the bond of service -- the United States 
Constitution; and that, as such, I am responsible 
to them."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: August 26, 1863 - Letter to James Conkling 

"I have never had a feeling, politically, that did not 
spring from ...the Declaration of Independence ... 
that all should have an equal chance. This is the 
sentiment embodied in the Declaration of 
Independence ... I would rather be assassinated 
on this spot
than surrender it."
Abraham Lincoln
Source:http://liberty-tree.ca/qb/Abraham.Lincoln.Quote.0426

Corporations
"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to 
tremble for the safety of my country; corporations have been enthroned, an era of 
corruption in High Places will follow, and the Money Power of the Country will 
endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the People, until 
the wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic is destroyed."
Abraham Lincoln
Source:http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Abraham.Lincoln.Quote.4F97

Creative Opportunity 
(GOP DEBT POLICY, Borrow and Spend?)
"The government should create, issue, and circulate all the 
currency and credit needed to satisfy the spending power of 
the government and the buying power of consumers. The privilege 
of creating and issuing money is not only the supreme 
prerogative of government, but it is the government’s 
greatest creative opportunity. The financing of all 
public enterprise, and the conduct of the treasury will 
become matters of practical administration. Money will 
cease to be master and will then become servant of humanity."
Abraham Lincoln
Source:http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Abraham.Lincoln.Quote.B712

Declaration of Independence
"I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments 
embodied in the Declaration of Independence."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: February 22, 1861 - Address in Independence Hall

Defense
"Passion has helped us; but can do so no more. It will in future be our enemy. 
Reason, cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason, must furnish all the materials 
for our future support and defense."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: February 22, 1842 - Temperance Address of Springfield, Illinois 

Despotism
"When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where 
they make no pretence of loving liberty -- to Russia, for instance, where 
despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocracy [sic]."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: August 24, 1855 - Letter to Joshua Speed

Deter
"The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from 
the support of a cause we believe to be just; it shall not deter me." "
Abraham Lincoln
Source: December 26, 1839 - Speech on the Sub-Treasury in the Illinois 
House of Representatives

Doing
"Every man is proud of what he does well; and no man is proud of what 
he does not do well. With the former, his heart is in his work; and he will 
do twice as much of it with less fatigue. The latter performs a little imperfectly,
 looks at it in disgust, turns from it, and imagines himself exceedingly tired. 
The little he has done, comes to nothing, for want of finishing."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: September 30, 1859 - Address before the Wisconsin State 
Agricultural Society 

Education
"Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan or system 
respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which 
we as a people can be engaged in."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: March 9, 1832 - First Political Announcement



"The old general rule was that educated people did not perform manual 
labor. They managed to eat their bread, leaving the toil of producing it to 
the uneducated. This was not an insupportable evil to the working bees, 
so long as the class of drones remained very small. But now, especially 
in these free States, nearly all are educated--quite too nearly all, to leave 
the labor of the uneducated, in any wise adequate to the support of the 
whole. It follows from this that henceforth educated people must labor. 
Otherwise, education itself would become a positive and intolerable evil. 
No country can sustain, in idleness, more than a small percentage of its 
numbers. The great majority must labor at something productive."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: September 30, 1859 - Address before the Wisconsin State 
Agricultural Society

Elephant
When you have got an elephant by the hind leg, and he is trying to away, 
it's best to let him run
Abraham lincoln
Source:Cabinet meeting, Apr 14, 1865

Emancipation Proclamation
"And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and 
declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and 
parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the 
Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval 
authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons."
Abraham Lincoln
Source:January 1, 1863 - Final Emancipation Proclamation 

"You dislike the emancipation proclamation; and, perhaps, would have it 
retracted. You say it is unconstitutional -- I think differently."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: August 26, 1863 - Letter to James Conkling 

"But the proclamation, as law, either is valid, or is not valid. If it is not valid, 
it needs no retraction. If it is valid, it can not be retracted, any more than the 
dead can be brought to life."
Abraham Lincoln
Source:August 26, 1863 - Letter to James Conkling 

Equality?
"I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing 
about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black 
races - that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or 
jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry 
with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical 
difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever 
forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. 
And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there 
must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other 
man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. 
I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is 
to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything." 
Abraham Lincoln
Source: September 18, 1858 - Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas 
at Charleston, Illinois

Errors
I shall try to correct errors where shown to be errors, and I shall 
adopy new views as fast as they shall appear to be true views.
Abraham Lincoln
Source:Letter to Horace Greeley

Events
"I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events 
have controlled me." 
Abraham Lincoln
Source: April 4, 1864 - Letter to Albert Hodges

Failure
"I know not how to aid you, save in the assurance of one of mature age, 
and much severe experience, that you can not fail, if you resolutely 
determine, that you will not."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: July 22, 1860 - Letter to George Latham

Faith
"Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, 
dare to do our duty as we understand it."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: February 27, 1860 - Cooper Union Address

Falsehood
"I believe it is an established maxim in morals that he who makes an assertion 
without knowing whether it is true or false, is guilty of falsehood; and the 
accidental truth of the assertion, does not justify or excuse him."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: August 11, 1846 - Letter to Allen N. Ford

Farewell
"My friends, no one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness 
at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe 
everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a 
young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried.
 I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task 
before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. 
Without the assistance of the Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot 
succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with 
me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently 
hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in 
your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell." 
Abraham Lincoln
Source: February 11, 1861 - Farewell Address at the Great Western 
Depot in Springfield, Illinois

Fight
"You say you will not fight to free negroes. Some of them seem willing to 
fight for you; but, no matter. Fight you, then exclusively to save the Union."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: August 26, 1863 - Letter to James Conkling 

Free
"I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I 
intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men 
everywhere could be free."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: August 22, 1862 - Letter to Horace Greeley

Freedom
"In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free - honorable 
alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly 
lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. 
The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just - a way which, if followed, the world 
will forever applaud, and God must forever bless." 
Abraham Lincoln
Source: December 1, 1862 - Lincoln's Second Annual Message to Congress

Friend
I desire so to conduct the affairs of this adminstration that if at the end, 
when I come to lay down the reins of power, I have lost every other friend 
on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be 
down inside of me.
Abraham lincoln
Source:Speech to the Missouri Committee of Seventy, 1964

Genius
"Towering genius distains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: January 27, 1838 - Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of 
Springfield, Illinois

The demon of intemperance ever seems to have delighted in sucking the blood 
of genius and of generosity.
Abraham Lincoln
Source: February 22, 1842 - Temperance Address of Springfield, Illinois

God
"The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in 
accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: September 1862 - Meditation on the Divine Will

"If God now wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills also that we 
of the North as well as you of the South, shall pay fairly for our 
complicity in that wrong, impartial history will find therein new cause to 
attest and revere the justice and goodness of God."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: April 4, 1864 - Letter to Albert Hodges 

"We hoped for a happy termination of this terrible war long before this; 
but God knows best, and has ruled otherwise. We shall yet acknowledge 
His wisdom and our own error therein."
Abraham Lincoln
Source:September 4, 1864 - Letter to Eliza Gurney 

"Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid 
against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's 
assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us 
judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; 
that of neither has been answered fully."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: March 4, 1865 - Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address 

History
"Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this 
administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal 
significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery 
trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the 
latest generation."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: December 1, 1862 - Lincoln's Second Annual Message to Congress 

Honey
"When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind, 
unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and a true maxim, 
that a 'drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.'"
Abraham Lincoln
Source: February 22, 1842 - Temperance Address of Springfield, Illinois

John Brown
"John Brown's effort was peculiar. It was not a slave insurrection. It was 
an attempt by white men to get up a revolt among slaves, in which the 
slaves refused to participate."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: February 27, 1860 - Cooper Union Address

Killing
"And then, there will be some black men who can remember that, with silent 
tongue, and clenched teeth, and steady eye, and well-poised bayonnet, they 
have helped mankind on to this great consummation..."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: August 26, 1863 - Letter to James Conkling 

Kings
"Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars,
pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was 
the object."
Abraham Lincoln 1848
Source:http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Abraham.Lincoln.Quote.B72F

Know-Nothing
"I am not a Know-Nothing. That is certain. How could I be? How can 
any one who abhors the oppression of negroes, be in favor of degrading 
classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to 
be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that "all men are 
created equal." We now practically read it "all men are created equal, 
except Negroes." When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all 
men are created equal, except Negroes and foreigners and Catholics." 
When it comes to this, I shall prefer emigrating to some country where 
they make no pretense of loving liberty - to Russia, for instance, where 
despotism can be taken pure and without the base alloy of hypocrisy." 
Abraham Lincoln
Source: August 24, 1855 - Letter to Joshua Speed 



Labor
"By the 'mud-sill' theory it is assumed that labor and education are 
incompatible; and any practical combination of them impossible. 
According to that theory, a blind horse upon a tread-mill, is a perfect 
illustration of what a laborer should be -- all the better for being blind, 
that he could not tread out of place, or kick understandingly. According 
to that theory, the education of laborers, is not only useless, but 
pernicious, and dangerous. In fact, it is, in some sort, deemed a 
misfortune that laborers should have heads at all."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: September 30, 1859 - Address before the Wisconsin State 
Agricultural Society 

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit 
of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor 
is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." 
Abraham Lincoln
Source: December 3, 1861 - Lincoln's First Annual Message to Congress

"Property is the fruit of labor...property is desirable...is a positive good in 
the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, 
and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who 
is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor diligently and 
build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe 
from violence when built." 
Abraham Lincoln
Source: March 21, 1864 - Reply to New York Workingmen's 
Democratic Republican Association".

I agree with you, Mr. Chairman, that the workingmen are the basis for all
governments, for the plain reason that they are more numerous.
Abraham lincoln
Source:Speech, Cinn, Feb 12, 1861

Law of the Land
"Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well wisher to his posterity, 
swear by the blood of the Revolution, never to violate in the least particular, 
the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their violation by others."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: January 27, 1838 - Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of 
Springfield, Illinois 

"Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by every American mother, to the 
lisping babe, that prattles on her lap -- let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, 
and in colleges; let it be written in Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs; 
-- let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and 
enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion 
of the nation; and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave 
and the gay, of all sexes and tongues, and colors and conditions, sacrifice 
unceasingly upon its altars."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: January 27, 1838 - Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of 
Springfield, Illinois 

Lawyer
"If you are resolutely determined to make a lawyer of yourself, the thing 
is more than half done already."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: November 5, 1855 - Letter to Isham Reavis

Liberty
"I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until 
there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal." 
Abraham Lincoln
Source: July 10, 1858 - Speech at Chicago, Illinois

"We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all 
mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each 
man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while 
with others, the same word many mean for some men to do as they 
please with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are 
two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name
- liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, 
called by two different and incompatible names - liberty and tyranny." 
Abraham Lincoln
Source:April 18, 1864 - Address at Sanitary Fair, Baltimore, Maryland

"The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat,
for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator,
while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty."
Abraham Lincoln
(1809-1865) 16th US President
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Abraham.Lincoln.Quote.8ACD

Litigation
Discourage litigation. Pursuade your neightbor to compromise 
whenever you can.... As a peace-maker the lawyer has a superior 
opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.
Abraham lincoln
Source:Notes for a Law Lecture.
Me
"If any personal description of me is thought desirable, it may be said, I am,
in height, six feet, four inches, nearly; lean in flesh, weighing on an average
one hundred and eighty pounds; dark complexion, with coarse black hair, 
and grey eyes -- no other marks or brands recollected."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: December 20, 1859 - Autobiography

Mob Law
"There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: January 27, 1838 - Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of 
Springfield, Illinois
 
More of the Same
If I knew what brand of whiskey he [General Grant] drinks, 
I would send a barrel or so to some other generals.
Abraham Lincoln
Source:Remark at Cabinet meeting, 1864

Peace
"The man does not live who is more devoted to peace than I am. 
None who would do more to preserve it."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: February 21, 1861 - Address to the New Jersey General Assembly

"Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope it will come soon, and come 
to stay; and so come as to be worth the keeping in all future time."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: August 26, 1863 - Letter to James Conkling

Principles
Important principles may and must be flexible.
Abraham Lincoln
Source:Last Public Address, Apr 11, 1865

Prohibition
"Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts 
to control a man's appetite by legislation, and makes a crime 
out of things that are not crimes."
Abraham Lincoln
Source:http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Abraham.Lincoln.Quote.
563D

"A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which
our government was founded."
Abraham Lincoln
Source:http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Abraham.Lincoln.Quote.410A

Public Opinion
Public opinion in this country is everything.
Abraham Lincoln
Source:Speech, Cinn, Ohio 1859

Public Sentiment
"Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; 
without it nothing can succeed." 
Abraham Lincoln
Source: August 21, 1858 - Lincoln-Douglas debate at Ottawa

Reading
"A capacity, and taste, for reading, gives access to whatever has already 
been discovered by others. It is the key, or one of the keys, to the 
already solved problems. And not only so. It gives a relish, and 
facility, for successfully pursuing the [yet] unsolved ones."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: September 30, 1859 - Address before the Wisconsin State 
Agricultural Society

Reconstruction
"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as 
God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; 
to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, 
and for his widow and his orphan - to do all which may achieve and cherish a 
just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: March 4, 1865 - Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address

Revolutionary Right
"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. 
Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise 
their Constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to 
dismember it or overthrow it."
Abraham Lincoln
1st Inaugral Address March 4, 1861
Source:http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Abraham.Lincoln.Quote.4F7C

Revolutions
Be not deceived. Revolutions do not go backward.
Abraham lincoln
Source:Speech May 19, 1856

"If by the mere force of numbers a majority
should deprive a minority of any clearly written
constitutional right, it might, in a moral point
of view, justify revolution."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: First Inaugural Address, 4 March 1861

Right and Wrong
"It is the eternal struggle between these two principles --
right and wrong -- throughout the world.
They are the two principles that have stood
face to face from the beginning of time..."
Abraham Lincoln
Source:http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Abraham.Lincoln.Quote.704F

Save Our Country
"The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. 
The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise -- with the 
occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. 
We must disentrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: December 1, 1862 - Lincoln's Second Annual Message to Congress 

See Me, See You
"I have stepped out upon this platform that I may see you and that you may 
see me, and in the arrangement I have the best of the bargain."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: February 16, 1861 - Remarks at Painesville, Ohio

Secession
"Plainly, the central idea of secession, is the essence of anarchy."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: March 4, 1861 - Lincoln's First Inaugural Address

Ship of State
"If all do not join now to save the good old ship of the Union this voyage 
nobody will have a chance to pilot her on another voyage." 
Abraham Lincoln
Source: February 15, 1861 - Speech at Cleveland, Ohio

Silence
"I am rather inclined to silence, and whether that be wise or not, it is at 
least more unusual nowadays to find a man who can hold his tongue 
than to find one who cannot."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: February 14, 1861 - Remarks at the Monogahela House

"To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men."
Abraham Lincoln

Slavery
"I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I 
can not remember when I did not so think, and feel. And yet I have never 
understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to 
act officially upon this judgment and feeling."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: April 4, 1864 - Letter to Albert Hodges

"If as the friends of colonization hope, the present and coming generations 
of our countrymen shall by any means, succeed in freeing our land from the 
dangerous presence of slavery; and, at the same time, in restoring a captive 
people to their long-lost father-land, with bright prospects for the future; 
and this too, so gradually, that neither races nor individuals shall have 
suffered by the change, it will indeed be a glorious consummation."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: July 6, 1852 - Eulogy on Henry Clay

"The Autocrat of all the Russias will resign his crown, and proclaim his 
subjects free republicans sooner than will our American masters voluntarily 
give up their slaves."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: August 15, 1855 - Letter to George Robertson 



"You know I dislike slavery; and you fully admit the abstract wrong of it."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: August 24, 1855 - Letter to Joshua Speed
 
"The slave-breeders and slave-traders, are a small, odious and detested 
class, among you; and yet in politics, they dictate the course of all of you, 
and are as completely your masters, as you are the master of your 
own negroes."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: August 24, 1855 - Letter to Joshua Speed 

"I believe this Government cannot endure, permanently half slave 
and half free."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: June 16, 1858 - House Divided Speech in Springfield, Illinois
 
"A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government 
cannot endure permanently half-slave and half-free. I do not expect the 
Union to be dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do expect 
it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other." 
Abraham Lincoln
Source: June 16, 1858 - House Divided Speech in Springfield, Illinois

"This is a world of compensations; and he who would be no slave, 
must consent to have no slave."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: April 6, 1859 - Letter to Henry Pierce
 
"Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; 
and, under a just God, can not long retain it."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: April 6, 1859 - Letter to Henry Pierce

"One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally 
over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a 
peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the 
cause of the war."
Abraham Lincoln
Source:March 4, 1865 - Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address 

Sorrow
"In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all; and, to the young, it comes 
with bitterest agony, because it takes them unawares."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: December 23, 1862 - Letter to Fanny McCullough

Strongest Bond
The strongest bond of human sympathy, outside of the family relation, 
should be one uniting all working people, of all nations, and tongues, 
and kindreds.
Abraham lincoln
Source:Letter to NY Workingman Assn, Mar 21, 1864

Suicide
"At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means 
shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, 
to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, 
Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own 
excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, 
could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the 
Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point, then, is the 
approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us it must 
spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, 
we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we 
must live through all time, or die by suicide. 
Abraham Lincoln
Source: January 27, 1838 - Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum 
of Springfield, Illinois 

Supreme Court
"[I]f the policy of the government upon vital questions, affecting 
the whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the 
Supreme Court, the instant they are made, in ordinary litigation 
between parties, in personal actions, the people will have ceased 
to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned 
their government into the hands of that eminent tribunal."
 Abraham Lincoln
Source: First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861, Washington, D.C.
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Abraham.Lincoln.Quote.8EAA

Swapping Horses
"I have not permitted myself, gentlemen, to conclude that I am the best 
man in the country; but I am reminded, in this connection, of a story of an 
old Dutch farmer who remarked to a companion once that 'it was not best 
to swap horses while crossing streams'." 
Abraham Lincoln
Source:June 9, 1864 - Reply to Delegation from the National Union League"

Thanksgiving
"I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, 
and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, 
to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of 
Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. 
And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to 
Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble 
penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His 
tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or 
sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, 
and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds 
of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine 
purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: October 3, 1863 - Proclamation of Thanksgiving 

This Too Shall Pass
"It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him 
a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate 
in all times and situations. They presented him the words: 'And this, too, 
shall pass away.' How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour 
of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!"
Abraham Lincoln
Source: September 30, 1859 - Address before the Wisconsin State 
Agricultural Society 

Today's Classroom
"The philosophy of the classroom today
will be the philosophy of government tomorrow."
Abraham Lincoln
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Abraham.Lincoln.Quote.4147

Union
"I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. 
The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be 
'the Union as it was.'"
Abraham Lincoln
Source: August 22, 1862 - Letter to Horace Greeley

"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to 
save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave 
I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and 
if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. 
What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps 
to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it 
would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I 
am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing 
more will help the cause." 
Abraham Lincoln
Source: August 22, 1862 - Letter to Horace Greeley

United States
"It is not merely for to-day, but for all time to come that we should perpetuate 
for our children's children this great and free government, which we have enjoyed 
all our lives."
Abraham Lincoln
Source: August 22, 1864 - Speech to the One Hundred Sixty-sixth Ohio Regiment 

White House
"I happen temporarily to occupy this big White House. I am living witness that any 
one of your children may look to come here as my father's child has." 
Abraham Lincoln
Source:August 22, 1864 - Speech to the One Hundred Sixty-sixth Ohio Regiment 



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