Background Image

...

A Husband And Wife May Be Divorced And Go Out Of The Presence And Beyond The Reach Of Each Other, But The Different Parts Of Our Country Can Not Do This. They Can But Remain Face To Face, And Intercourse, Either Amicable Or Hostile, Must Continue Between Them.

-Abraham Lincoln

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

A Husband And Wife

Abraham Lincoln

...

A Husband And Wife May Be Divorced And Go Out Of The Presence And Beyond The Reach Of Each Other, But The Different Parts Of Our Country Can Not Do This. They Can But Remain Face To Face, And Intercourse, Either Amicable Or Hostile, Must Continue Between Them.

Views: 6

Topic

More From Abraham Lincoln

I Don't Believe In A Law To Prevent A Man From Getting Rich; It Would Do More Harm Than Good. So While We Do Not Propose Any War Upon Capital, We Do Wish To Allow The Humblest Man An Equal Chance To Get Rich With Everybody Else.

I Shall Always Think Of Myself First And Foremost... As A Hunter.

I Wish All Men To Be Free. I Wish The Material Prosperity Of The Already Free Which I Feel Sure The Extinction Of Slavery Would Bring.

As The Patriots Of Seventy-six Did To The Support Of The Declaration Of Independence, So To The Support Of The Constitution And Laws, Let Every American Pledge His Life, His Property, And His Sacred Honor;-let Every Man Remember That To Violate The Law, Is To Trample On The Blood Of His Father, And To Tear The Character Of His Own, And His Children's Liberty.

You Cannot Bring About Prosperity By Discouraging Thrift. You Cannot Establish Sound Security On Borrowed Money. You Cannot Keep Out Of Trouble By Spending More Than You Earn.

I Do, Therefore, Invite My Fellow Citizens . . . 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.

God Bless The Soldiers And Seamen, With All Their Brave Commanders.

The Dogmas Of The Quiet Past Are Inadequate To The Stormy Present. The Occasion Is Piled High With Difficulty, And We Must Rise To The Occasion. We Cannot Escape History. We Will Be Remembered In Spite Of Ourselves. The Fiery Trial Through Which We Pass Will Light Us Down In Honour Or Dishonour, To The Last Generation. We Shall Nobly Save, Or Meanly Lose, Our Last Best Hope Of Earth.

In This Troublesome World, We Are Never Quite Satisfied. When You Were Here, I Thought You Hindered Me Some In Attending To Business; But Now, Having Nothing But Business---no Variety---it Has Grown Exceedingly Tasteless To Me. I Hate To Sit Down And Direct Documents, And I Hate To Stay In This Old Room By Myself.

But In A Larger Sense, We Cannot Dedicate, We Cannot Consecrate, We Cannot Hallow This Ground. The Brave Men, Living And Dead, Who Struggled Here, Have Consecrated It, Far Above Our Poor Power To Add Or To Detract. The World Will Little Note, Nor Long Remember What We Say Here, But It Can Never Forget What They Did Here.

Whenever There Is A Conflict Between Human Rights And Property Rights, Human Rights Must Prevail.

The Man Does Not Live Who Is More Devoted To Peace Than I Am. None Who Would Do More To Preserve It.

Suspicions Which May Be Unjust Need Not Be Stated.

I Have Had So Many Evidences Of [god's] Direction, So Many Instances When I Have Been Controlled By Some Other Power Than My Own Will, That I Cannot Doubt That This Power Comes From Above.

Evidence Of God

I Told Myself, "lincoln, You Can Never Make A Lawyer If You Do Not Understand What Demonstrate Means." So I Left My Situation In Springfield, Went Home To My Father's House, And Stayed There Till I Could Give Any Proposition In The Six Books Of Euclid At Sight. I Then Found Out What "demonstrate" Means, And Went Back To My Law Studies.

I Have Always Found That Mercy Bears Richer Fruits Than Strict Justice.

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.

The Ballot Is Stronger Than The Bullet.

Democracies Have

Teach The Children So It Will Not Be Necessary To Teach The Adults.

War, At The Best, Is Terrible, And This War Of Ours, In Its Magnitude And In Its Duration, Is One Of The Most Terrible.

We Must Believe That He Permits It [this War] For Some Wise Purpose Of His Own, Mysterious And Unknown To Us; And Though With Ourlimited Understandings We May Not Be Able To Comprehend It, Yet We Cannot But Believe, That He Who Made The World Still Governs It.

Why Should There Not Be A Patient Confidence In The Ultimate Justice Of The People? Is There Any Better Or Equal Hope In The World?

Do I Not Damage My Enemies After I Make Them My Close Friends?

You May Have A Wen Or A Cancer Upon Your Person And Not Be Able To Cut It Out Lest You Bleed To Death; But Surely It Is No Way Tocure It, To Engraft It And Spread It Over Your Whole Body.

It May Be Affirmed, Without Extravagance, That The Free Institutions We Enjoy, Have Developed The Powers, And Improved The Condition, Of Our Whole People, Beyond Any Example In The World.

We Cannot But Believe That He Who Made The World Still Governs It.

Beware Of Rashness, But With Energy And Sleepless Vigilance Go Forward And Give Us Victories.

I Wish To See, In Process Of Disappearing, That Only Thing Which Ever Could Bring This Nation To Civil War.

I Hold The Value Of Life Is To Improve One's Condition. Whatever Is Calculated To Advance The Condition Of The Honest, Struggling Laboring Man, So Far As My Judgment Will Enable Me To Judge Of A Correct Thing, I Am For That Thing.

Let Us Re-adopt The Declaration Of Independence, And With It, The Practices, And Policy, Which Harmonize With It. Let North And South - Let All Americans - Let All Lovers Of Liberty Everywhere - Join In The Great And Good Work. If We Do This, We Shall Not Only Have Saved The Union; But We Shall Have So Saved It, As To Make, And To Keep It, Forever Worthy Of The Saving. We Shall Have So Saved It, That The Succeeding Millions Of Free Happy People, The World Over, Shall Rise Up, And Call Us Blessed, To The Latest Generations.

Capital Has Its Proper Place And Is Entitled To Every Protection. The Wages Of Men Should Be Recognized In The Structure Of And In The Social Order As More Important Than The Wages Of Money [interest].

You Can Have Anything You Want If You Want It Badly Enough. You Can Be Anything You Want To Be, Do Anything You Set Out To Accomplish If You Hold To That Desire With Singleness Of Purpose.

We Have All Heard Of Young America. He Is The Most Current Youth Of The Age. Some Think Him Conceited, And Arrogant; But Has He Not Reason To Entertain A Rather Extensive Opinion Of Himself? Is He Not The Inventor And Owner Of The Present, And Sole Hope Of The Future?

Commitment Is What Transforms A Promise Into Reality.

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.

If You Understand What You're Doing, You're Not Learning Anything.

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 Primmers, Spelling Books, And In Almanacs; Let It Be Preached From The Pulpit, Proclaimed In Legislative Halls, And Enforced In Courts Of Justice.

Let None Falter Who Thinks He Is Right, And We May Succeed. But If, After All, We Shall Fail, Be It So: We Still Shall Have The Proud Consolation Of Saying To Our Consciences, And To The Departed Shade Of Our Country's Freedom, That The Cause Approved Of Our Judgment And Adored Of Our Hearts, In Disaster, In Chains, In Torture, In Death, We Never Faltered In Defending.

No Policy That Does Not Rest Upon Some Philosophical Public Opinion Can Be Permanently Maintained.

Will Springs From The Two Elements Of Moral Sense And Self-interest.

If I Were Two-faced, Would I Be Wearing This One?

My Faith In The Proposition That Each Man Should Do Precisely As He Pleases With All Which Is Exclusively His Own Lies At The Foundation Of The Sense Of Justice There Is In Me.

Accounts Of Outrages Committed By Mobs Form The Every-day News Of The Times. They Have Pervaded The Country From New England To Louisiana, They Are Neither Peculiar To The Eternal Snows Of The Former Nor The Burning Suns Of The Latter; They Are Not The Creature Of Climate, Neither Are They Confined To The Slaveholding Or The Non-slaveholding States. Alike They Spring Up Among The Pleasure-hunting Masters Of Southern Slaves, And The Order-loving Citizens Of The Land Of Steady Habits. Whatever Then Their Cause May Be, It Is Common To The Whole Country.

The Working Men Are The Basis Of All Governments, For The Plain Reason That They Are The Most Numerous.

The Bible Is Not My Book And Christianity Is Not My Religion. I Could Never Give Assent To The Long Complicated Statements Of Christian Dogma.

With High Hope For The Future, No Prediction Is Ventured.

Hope For The Future

May The Almighty Grant That The Cause Of Truth, Justice, And Humanity, Shall In No Wise Suffer At My Hands.

I Have Always Hated Slavery, I Think As Much As Any Abolitionist.

Abolition Of Slavery

I Had Been Told I Was On The Road To Hell, But I Had No Idea It Was Just A Mile Down The Road With A Dome On It.

I'm A Success Today Because I Had A Friend Who Believed In Me And I Didn't Have The Heart To Let Him Down.

It Is The Eternal Struggle Between These Two Principles - Right And Wrong. They Are The Two Principles That Have Stood Face To Face From The Beginning Of Time And Will Ever Continue To Struggle. It Is The Same Spirit That Says, "you Work And Toil And Earn Bread, And I'll Eat It."

The Best Way To Destroy An Enemy Is To Make Him A Friend.

There's No Honorable Way To Kill, No Gentle Way To Destroy. There Is Nothing Good In War. Except Its Ending.

The Political Horizon Looks Dark And Lowering; But The People, Under Providence, Will Set All Right.

My Policy Is To Have No Policy.

We Should Avoid Planting And Cultivating Too Many Thorns In The Bosom Of Society.

It Is Safe To Assert That No Government Proper Ever Had A Provision In Its Organic Law For Its Own Termination.

Now I Confess Myself As Belonging To That Class In The Country Who Contemplate Slavery As A Moral, Social And Political Evil.

I Think That One Of The Causes Of These Repeated Failures Is That Our Best And Greatest Men Have Greatly Underestimated The Size Of This Question (slavery). They Have Constantly Brought Forward Small Cures For Great Sores-plasters Too Small To Cover The Wound. That Is One Reason That All Settlements Have Proved So Temporary-so Evanescent.

Republicans Are For Both The Man And The Dollar, But In Case Of Conflict The Man Before The Dollar.

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!

The President To-night Has A Dream: - He Was In A Party Of Plain People, And, As It Became Known Who He Was, They Began To Comment On His Appearance. One Of Them Said: - "he Is A Very Common-looking Man". The President Replied: - "the Lord Prefers Common-looking People. That Is The Reason He Makes So Many Of Them".

Seriously, I Do Not Think I Am Fit For The Presidency.

In This Sad World Of Ours, Sorrow Comes To All, And It Comes With Bitter Agony. Perfect Relief Is Not Possible, Except With The Passing Of Time.

The Power Of Hope Upon Human Exertion, And Happiness, Is Wonderful.

Our Republican System Was Meant For A Homogeneous People. As Long As Blacks Continue To Live With The Whites They Constitute A Threat To The National Life. Family Life May Also Collapse And The Increase Of Mixed Breed Bastards May Some Day Challenge The Supremacy Of The White Man.

Lonely Men Seek Companionship. Lonely Women Sit At Home And Wait. They Never Meet.

My Father Taught Me To Work; He Did Not Teach Me To Love It.

The Power Confided In Me Will Be Used To Hold, Occupy And Possess The Property And Places Belonging To The Government, And To Collect The Duties And Imposts.

Men Are Not Flattered By Being Shown That There Has Been A Difference Of Purpose Between The Almighty And Them.

Our Attitude Is More Honest And More Consistent Than Our Words.

Lincoln Called Laughter "the Joyous, Beautiful, Universal Evergreen Of Life."

It Is My Pleasure That My Children Are Free And Happy, And Unrestrained By Parental Tyranny. Love Is The Chain Whereby To Bind A Child To Its Parents.

I Think I Stand Where That Man Stands.

Certainly There Is No Contending Against The Will Of God; But Still There Is Some Difficulty In Ascertaining, And Applying It, To Particular Cases.

When I Got Him Out He Was Near Froze Solid And Shivering. He Was Shaking So Hard That I Wasted Half A Glass Of Whiskey Trying To Aim It For His Mouth. Must Have Got Enough Of It Into Him, Though, Since It Did Seem To Bring Him Back To Life.

I Will, To The Best Of My Ability, Preserve, Protect And Defend The Constitution Of The United States. It Is Not The Constitution As I Would Like To Have It, But As It Is, That Is To Be Defended. The Constitution Will Not Be Preserved & Defended Until It Is Enforced & Obeyed In Every Part Of Every One Of The United States. It Must Be So Respected, Obeyed, Enforced And Defended, And Let The Grass Grow Where It May.

I Am Nothing, Truth Is Everything.

The Greatest Fine Art Of The Future Will Be The Making Of A Comfortable Living From A Small Piece Of Land.

Men Are Not Flattered By Being Shown That There Has Been A Difference Of Purpose Between The Almighty And Them. To Deny It, However, In This Case, Is To Deny That There Is A God Governing The World. It Is A Truth Which I Thought Needed To Be Told; And As Whatever Of Humilation There Is In It, Falls Most Directly On Myself, I Thought Others Might Afford For Me To Tell It.

Abraham Lincoln Was Asked By An Aide About The Church Service He Had Attended. Lincoln Responded That The Minister Was Inspired, Interesting, Well-prepared, Eloquent And The Topic Relevant. The Aide Said, “then It Was A Good Service?” Lincoln Responded, “no.” The Aide Protested, “but, Mr. President, You Said That The Minister Was Inspired, Interesting, Well-prepared, Eloquent, And That The Topic Was Relevant.” “yes,” Replied Lincoln, “but He Didn’t Challenge Us To Do Any Great Thing.

But I Must Add That The U.s. Government Must Not, As By This Order, Undertake To Run The Churches. When An Individual, In A Church Or Out Of It, Becomes Dangerous To The Public Interest, He Must Be Checked; But Let The Churches, As Such Take Care Of Themselves. It Will Not Do For The U.s. To Appoint Trustees, Supervisors, Or Other Agents For The Churches.

Government, Possessing The Power To Create And Issue Currency And Credit As Money And Enjoying The Right To Withdraw Both Currency And Credit From Circulation By Taxation And Otherwise, Need Not And Should Not Borrow Capital At Interest As A Means Of Financing Government Work And Public Enterprises.

You Can't Help The Poor By Being One Of Them.

That On The First Day Of January, In The Year Of Our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred Ans Sixty-three, All Persons Held As Slaves Within Any State Or Designated Part Of A State, The People Whereof Shall Then Be In Rebellion Against The United States, Shall Be Then, Thence Forward, And Forever Free.

If A Man Will Stand Up And Assert, And Repeat And Re-assert, That Two And Two Do Not Make Four, I Know Nothing In The Power Of Argument That Can Stop Him.

I Never Tire Of Reading Tom Paine.

I Dared Not Trust The Case On The Presumption That The Court Knows Everything. In Fact, I Argued It On The Presumption That The Court Didn't Know Anything.

You Can Tell The Greatness Of A Man By What Makes Him Angry

And I Do Further Recommend To My Fellow-citizens Aforesaid, That On That Occasion They Do Reverently Humble Themselves In The Dust, And From Thence Offer Up Penitent And Fervent Prayers And Supplications To The Great Disposer Of Events For A Return Of The Inestimable Blessings Of Peace, Union, And Harmony Throughout The Land Which It Has Pleased Him To Assign As A Dwelling-place For Ourselves And For Our Posterity Throughout All Generations.

Better To Remain Silent And Be Thought A Fool Than To Speak Out And Remove All Doubt.

It Is Better Then, To Save The Work While It Is Begun. You Have Done The Labor; Maintain It - Keep It. If Men Choose To Serve You, Go With Them; But As You Have Made Up Your Organization Upon Principle, Stand By It; For As Surely As God Reigns Over You, And Has Inspired Your Mind, And Given You A Sense Of Propriety, And Continues To Give You Hope, So Surely Will You Still Cling To These Ideas, And You Will At Last Come Back After Your Wanderings, Merely To Do Your Work Over Again.

No Man Ever Got Lost On A Straight Road.

Human Nature Will Not Change. In Any Future Great National Trial, Compared With The Men Of This, We Shall Have As Weak And As Strong, As Silly And As Wise, As Bad And As Good. Let Us Therefore Study The Incidents In This As Philosophy To Learn Wisdom From And None Of Them As Wrongs To Be Avenged.

Marriage Is Neither Heaven Nor Hell, It Is Simply Purgatory.

There Is An Important Sense In Which Government Is Distinctive From Administration. One Is Perpetual, The Other Is Temporary And Changeable. A Man May Be Loyal To His Government And Yet Oppose The Particular Principles And Methods Of Administration.

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.

It Has Been Said That One Bad General Is Better Than Two Good Ones, And The Saying Is True If Taken To Mean No More Than That An Army Is Better Directed By A Single Mind, Though Inferior, Than By Two Superior Ones At Variance And Cross-purposes With Each Other.

I Am In Favor Of Animal Rights As Well As Human Rights. That Is The Way Of A Whole Human Being.

Every Head Should Be Cultivated.

The Enthusiastic Uprising Of The People In Our Cause, Is Our Great Reliance; And We Can Not Safely Give It Any Check, Even Thoughit Overflows, And Runs In Channels Not Laid Down In Any Chart.

I Have Never Had A Feeling Politically That Did Not Spring From The Sentiments Embodied In The Declaration Of Independence.

Now What Is Judge Douglas Popular Sovereignty? It Is, As A Principle, No Other Than That, If One Man Chooses To Make A Slave Of Another Man, Neither That Other Man Nor Anybody Else Has A Right To Object.

All The Armies Of Europe Combined Could Not By Force Make A Track Upon The Blue Ridge, Or Take A Drink From The Ohio. If We Are To Be Destroyed, We Must Do It Ourselves.

I Will Say, Then, That I Am Not, Nor Ever Have Been, In Favor Of Bringing About In Any Way 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.

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 Exercise Their Revolutionary Right To Overthrow It.

The Time Has Come When I Am For Everybody Fighting The Rebels. Let Indians Fight Them; Let The Negroes Fight Them; And If You Have Got Any Strong-legged Jackasses In Iwoa That Can Kick Rebels To Death, They Have My Hearty Consent.

I Am Not An Accomplished Lawyer.

You Already Know I Desire That Neither Father Or Mother Shall Be In Want Of Any Comfort Either In Health Or Sickness While They Live.

No Man Is Poor Who Has A Godly Mother.

Have I Not Destroyed My Enemy When I Have Made Him Into My Friend?

The Legitimate Object Of Government Is To Do For A Community Of People Whatever They Need To Have Done, But Can Not Do At All, Or Can Not So Well Do, For Themselves – In Their Separate, And Individual Capacities.

Senator [stephen] Douglas Is Of World-wide Renown. All The Anxious Politicians Of His Party, Or Who Have Been Of His Party For Years Past, Have Been Looking Upon Him As Certainly, At No Distant Day, To Be The President Of The United States. They Have Seen In His Round, Jolly, Fruitful Face, Post Offices, Land Offices, Marshalships, And Cabinet Appointments, Chargeships And Foreign Missions, Bursting And Sprouting Out In Wonderful Exuberance Ready To Be Laid Hold Of By Their Greedy Hands.

I Am Approached With The Most Opposite Opinions And Advice, And That By Religious Men, Who Are Equally Certain That They Represent The Divine Will. ... I Hope It Will Not Be Irreverent For Me To Say That If It Is Probable That God Would Reveal His Will To Others, On A Point So Connected With My Duty, It Might Be Supposed He Would Reveal It Directly To Me... These Are Not, However, The Days Of Miracles ... I Must Study The Plain Physical Facts Of The Case, Ascertain What Is Possible, And Learn What Appears To Be Wise And Right.

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 Disrepect Of Religion In General, Or Of Any Denomination Of Christians In Particular.

Such Will Be A Great Lesson Of Peace: Teaching Men That What They Cannot Take By An Election, Neither Can They Take It By War.

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.

No Duty Is More Imperative For The Government Than The Duty It ;owes The People To Furnish Them With A Sound And Uniform Currency, An Of Regulating The Circulation Of The Medium Of Exchange So That Labor Will Be Protected From A Vicious Currency [private Bank-created, Interest-bearing Debt], And Commerce Will Be Facilitated By Cheap And Safe Exchanges.

We Believe That The Spreading Out And Perpetuity Of The Institution Of Slavery Impairs The General Welfare. We Believe - Nay, We Know, That That Is The Only Thing That Has Ever Threatened The Perpetuity Of The Union Itself.

All My Life I Have Tried To Pluck A Thistle And Plant A Flower Wherever The Flower Would Grow In Thought And Mind.

Whenever I Hear Anyone Arguing For Slavery, I Feel A Strong Impulse To See It Tried On Him Personally.

I Have Just Read Your Dispatch About Sore-tongued And Fatigued Horses, Will You Pardon Me For Asking What The Horses Of Your Army Have Done Since The Battle Of Antietam That Fatigues Anything?

I Have Always Wanted To Deal With Everyone I Meet Candidly And Honestly. If I Have Made Any Assertion Not Warranted By Facts, And It Is Pointed Out To Me, I Will Withdraw It Cheerfully.

The Bible Is Not My Book Nor Christianity My Profession. I Could Never Give Assent To The Long, Complicated Statements Of Christian Dogma.

The Blessing Always Comes Back To The Door Of The Author.

Let Us Strive On To Finish The Work We Are In.

God Must Love The Common Man, He Made So Many Of Them.

I Hope It Will Not Be Irreverent In Me To Say, That If It Be Probable That God Would Reveal His Will To Others, On A Point So Connected With My Duty, It Might Be Supposed He Would Reveal It Directly To Me

In Great Contests Each Party Claims To Act In Accordance With The Will Of God. Both May Be, And One Must Be Wrong.

Again, A Law May Be Both Constitutional And Expedient, And Yet May Be Administered In An Unjust And Unfair Way.

I Am For . . . Each Individual Doing Just As He Chooses In All Matters Which Concern Nobody Else.

I Will Do What I Think Is Right And When I Discover That It Is Wrong, I Will Change It.

Now, At The End Of Three Years Struggle The Nation's Condition Is Not What Either Party, Or Any Man Devised, Or Expected. God Alone Can Claim It.

We Shall Yet Acknowledge His Wisdom And Our Own Error Therein.

I Always Remember The Prayers Of My Mother As They Always Forever.

This Is Essentially A People's Contest... Whose Leading Object Is To Elevate The Condition Of Men - To Lift Artificial Weights From All Shoulders - To Clear The Paths Of Laudable Pursuit For All - To Afford All, An Unfettered Start And A Fair Chance, In The Race Of Life.

With Malice Towards None; With Charity For All.

What Has Ever Threatened Our Liberty And Prosperity Save And Except This Institution Of Slavery?

It Is A Good Face. I Am Glad This War Is Over At Last.

I Have Two Great Enemies, The Southern Army In Front Of Me And The Bankers In The Rear. Of The Two, The One At My Rear Is My Greatest Foe.

A Nation May Be Said To Consist Of Its Territory, Its People, And Its Laws. The Territory Is The Only Part Which Is Of Certain Durability.

The People When Rightly And Fully Trusted Will Return The Trust.

You Say Men Ought To Be Hung For The Way They Are Executing The Law; I Say The Way It Is Being Executed Is Quite As Good As Any Of Its Antecedents. It Is Being Executed In The Precise Way Which Was Intended From The First, Else Why Does No Nebraska Man Express Astonishment Or Condemnation? Poor Reeder Is The Only Public Man Who Has Been Silly Enough To Believe That Anything Like Fairness Was Ever Intended, And He Has Been Bravely Undeceived.

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.

Tell The Truth And You Won't Have So Much To Remember

Telling The Truth

You Have Confidence In Yourself, Which Is Valuable, If Not An Indispensable Quality.

A Universal Feeling, Whether Well Or Ill Founded, Cannot Be Safely Disregarded.

Law Is Nothing Else But The Best Reason Of Wise Men Applied For Ages To The Transactions And Business Of Mankind.

The Trouble With Too Many People Is They Believe The Realm Of Truth Always Lies Within Their Vision.

If I Had My Way, This War Would Never Have Been Commenced. If I Had Been Allowed My Way This War Would Have Been Ended Before This.

We Here Highly Resolve That These Dead Shall Not Have Died In Vain.

Love Is The Chain Whereby To Bind A Child To Its Parents.

As An Individual Who Undertakes To Live By Borrowing, Soon Finds His Original Means Devoured By Interest, And Next No One Left To Borrow From - So Must It Be With A Government.

What Is To Be, Will Be, And No Prayers Of Ours Can Arrest The Decree.

Well, I Suppose You Know That Men Will Stand A Good Deal When They Are Flattered.

Negroes, Like Other People, Act Upon Motives. Why Should They Do Anything For Us, If We Will Do Nothing For Them? If They Stake Their Lives For Us, They Must Be Prompted By The Strongest Motive, Even The Promise Of Freedom. And The Promise Being Made, Must Be Kept.

I Think That God Means That We Shall Do More Than We Have Yet Done In Furtherance Of His Plans And He Will Open The Way For Our Doing It.

We Can Not Have Free Government Without Elections; And If The Rebellion Could Force Us To Forego, Or Postpone A National Election It Might Fairly Claim To Have Already Conquered And Ruined Us.

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.

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. --as Quoted In The River Of Winged Dreams

A Tendancy To Melancholy...let It Be Observed, Is A Misfortune, Not A Fault.

If You Are Going To Fight, Don't Let Them Talk You Into Negotiating. But, If You Are Going To Negotiate, Don't Let Them Talk You Into Fighting.

I Am The President Of The United States Of America, Clothed In Immense Power! You Will Procure Me These Votes.

Without Slavery The Rebellion Could Never Have Existed; Without Slavery It Could Not Continue.

Leave Nothing For To-morrow Which Can Be Done To-day.

Procrastination

I Go For All Sharing The Privileges Of The Government Who Assist In Bearing Its Burdens. Consequently I Go For Admitting All Whites To The Right Of Suffrage Who Pay Taxes Or Bear Arms, By No Means Excluding Females.

The Loss Of Enemies Does Not Compensate For The Loss Of Friends.

While I Have Often Said That All Men Out To Be Free, Yet I Would Allow Those Colored Persons To Be Slaves Who Want To Be; And Next To Them Those White Persons Who Argue In Favor Of Making Other People Slaves. I Am In Favor Of Giving An Opportunity To Such White Men To Try It On For Themselves.

The Probability That We May Fail In The Struggle Ought Not To Deter Us From The Support Of A Cause We Believe To Be Just.

Now We Are Engaged In A Great Civil War, Testing Whether That Nation, Or Any Nation So Conceived And So Dedicated, Can Long Endure.

We Live In The Midst Of Alarms; Anxiety Beclouds The Future; We Expect Some New Disaster With Each Newspaper We Read.

There Is No Greater Injustice Than To Wring Your Profits From The Sweat Of Another Man's Brow.

Care For Him Who Shall Have Borne The Battle

Widows And Orphans

We Trust, Sir, That God Is On Our Side. It Is More Important To Know That We Are On God's Side.

While We Are Grateful To All The Brave Men And Officers For The Events Of The Past Few Days, We Should, Above All, Be Very Grateful To Almighty God, Who Gives Us Victory.

I Am Not Bound To Win, But I Am Bound To Be True.

He Has Got The Slows, Mr. Blair.

If The Good People In Their Wisdom Shall See Fit To Keep Me In The Background, I Have Been Too Familiar With Disappointments To Bevery Much Chagrined.

The Person Who Is Incapable Of Making A Mistake, Is Incapable Of Anything.

Making Mistakes

Few Can Be Induced To Labor Exclusively For Posterity; And None Will Do It Enthusiastically. Posterity Has Done Nothing For Us; And Theorize On It As We May, Practically We Shall Do Very Little For It, Unless We Are Made To Think We Are At The Same Time Doing Something For Ourselves.

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.

I Cannot Speak So Confidently About The Fighting Qualities Of The Eastern Men, Or What Are Called Yankees - Not Knowing Myself Particularly To Whom The Appellation Belongs - But This I Do Know - If The Southerners Think That Man For Man They Are Better Than Our Illinois Men, Or Western Men Generally, They Will Discover Themselves In A Grievous Mistake.

Books Serve To Show A Man That Those Original Thoughts Of His Aren't Very New At All.

New Relationship

The Worst Thing You Can Do For Anyone You Care About Is Anything That They Can Do On Their Own.

In Giving Freedom To The Slave, We Assure Freedom To The Free.

Congress And The President

I Could As Easily Bail Out The Potomac River With A Teaspoon As Attend To All The Details Of The Army.

If We Cannot Give Freedom To Every Creature, Let Us Do Nothing That Will Impose Slavery Upon Any Other Creature.

No Man Is Good Enough To Govern Another Man Without The Other's Consent.

My Friends 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 That Divine Being, Who Ever Attended Him, I Cannot Succeed. With That Assistance, I Cannot Fail.

Its Authors Meant It To Be... A Stumbling Block To Those Who In After Times Might Seek To Turn A Free People Back Into The Hateful Paths Of Despotism. They Knew The Proneness Of Prosperity To Breed Tyrants, And They Meant When Such Should Re-appear In This Fair Land And Commence Their Vocation They Should Find Left For Them At Least One Hard Nut To Crack.

The Us Patent System Adds The Fuel Of Interest To The Fire Of Genius In The Discovery And Production Of New And Useful Things

Sir, My Concern Is Not Whether God Is On Our Side; My Greatest Concern Is To Be On God's Side, For God Is Always Right.

Everybody Likes A Compliment.

Every Person Is Responsible For His Own Looks After 40.

No Matter How Much Cats Fight, There Always Seem To Be Plenty Of Kittens.

Many Free Countries Have Lost Their Liberty, And Ours May Lose Hers; But, If She Shall, Be It My Proudest Plume, Not That I Was The Last To Desert, But That I Never Deserted Her.

Determine That The Thing Can And Shall Be Done And Then... Find The Way.

Great Distance In Either Time Or Space Has Wonderful Power To Lull And Render Quiescent The Human Mind.

No Man Who Is Resolved To Make The Most Of Himself Can Spare Time For Personal Contention, Still Less Can He Afford To Take The Consequences, Including The Vitiation Of His Temper And The Loss Of Self Control, Yield To Larger Things To Which You Show No More Than Equal Rights, And Yield To Lesser Ones Though Clearly Your Own, Better Give Your Path To A Dog, Than Be Bitten By Him In Contesting For The Right, Not Even Killing The Dog, Will Cure The Bite

I Am For The People Of The Whole Nation Doing Just As They Please In All Matters Which Concern The Whole Nation; For That Of Each Part Doing Just As They Choose In All Matters Which Concern No Other Part; And For Each Individual Doing Just As He Chooses In All Matters Which Concern Nobody Else.

Trending Author

Ken Livingstone

Category