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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.

-Abraham Lincoln

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Abraham Lincoln Was Asked

Abraham Lincoln

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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.

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The Plainest Print Cannot Be Read Through A Gold Eagle.

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 And 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 All Wealth Is Aggregated In A Few Hands And The Republic Is Destroyed.

The Presidency, Even To The Most Experienced Politicians, Is No Bed Of Roses; And [zachary] Taylor Like Others, Found Thorns Within It. No Human Being Can Fill That Station And Escape Censure.

The Greatest Lessons I Have Every Learned Were At My Mother's Knees... All That I Am, Or Hope To Be, I Owe To My Angel Mother.

Being President Is Like The Man Who Was Tarred And Feathered And Ridden Out Of Town On A Rail... A Man In The Crowd Asked How He Liked It, And His Reply Was That If It Wasn't For The Honor Of The Thing, He Would Much Rather Walk.

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

If The Union Of These States, And The Liberties Of This People, Shall Be Lost, It Is But Little To Any One Man Of Fifty-two Yearsof Age, But A Great Deal To The Thirty Millions Of People Who Inhabit These United States, And To Their Posterity In All Coming Time.

Laughter Can Be Used To Sooth The Mind And Get Rid Of Those Awful Thoughts.

Our Eldest Boy, Bob, Has Been Away From Us Nearly A Year At School, And Will Enter Harvard University This Month. He Promises Verywell, Considering We Never Controlled Him Much.

When I Left Springfield [to Become President] I Asked The People To Pray For Me. I Was Not A Christian. When I Buried My Son, The Severest Trial Of My Life, I Was Not A Christian. But When I Went To Gettysburg And Saw The Graves Of Thousands Of Our Soldiers, I Then And There Consecrated Myself To Christ.

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.

When I Lay Down The Reins Of This Administration, I Want To Have One Friend Left. And That Friend Is Myself.

If I Could Save The Union Without Freeing Any Slave, I Would Do It.

Reduce The Supply Of Black Labor By Colonizing The Black Laborer Out Of The Country, And By Precisely So Much You Increase The Demand For And Wages Of White Labor.

And Whereas It Is The Duty Of Nations As Well As Of Men, To Own Their Dependence Upon The Overruling Power Of God ... And To Recognize The Sublime Truth, Announced In The Holy Scriptures And Proven By All History, That Those Nations Only Are Blessed Whose God Is The Lord.

If I Get 8 Hours To Cut A Tree I'll Spend 7 Hours To Sharp My Knife.

All That Serves Labor Serves The Nation. All ^ That Harms Labor Is Treason To America. No Line Can Be Drawn Between These Two. If Any Man Tells You He Loves America, Yet Hates Labor, He Is A Liar. If Any Man Tells You He Trusts America, Yet Fears Labor, He Is A Fool. There Is No America Without Labor, And To Fleece The One Is To Rob The Other.

I Claim Not To Have Controlled Events, But Confess Plainly That Events Have Controlled Me. 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. Whither It Is Tending Seems Plain. 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.

I Am Glad To See That A System Of Labor Prevails Under Which Laborers Can Strike When They Want To.

We, On Our Side, Are Praying To Him To Give Us Victory, Because We Believe We Are Right; But Those On The Other Side Pray To Him, Look For Victory, Believing They Are Right. What Must He Think Of Us?

I Do The Very Best I Can, I Mean To Keep Going. If The End Brings Me Out All Right, Then What Is Said Against Me Won't Matter. If I'm Wrong, Ten Angels Swearing I Was Right Won't Make A Difference.

I Intend No Modification Of My Oft-expressed Wish That All Men Everywhere Could Be Free.

If There Is No Military Need For The Building, Leave It Alone, Neither Putting Anyone In Or Out Of It, Except On Finding Some One Preaching Or Practicing Treason, In Which Case Lay Hands On Him, Just As If He Were Doing The Same Thing In Any Other Building.

Man Is Not The Only Animal Who Labors; But He Is The Only One Who Improves His Workmanship.

We Think Slavery A Great Moral Wrong, And While We Do Not Claim The Right To Touch It Where It Exists, We Wish To Treat It As A Wrong In The Territories, Where Our Votes Will Reach It.

The Master Not Only Governs The Slave Without His Consent, But He Governs Him By A Set Of Rules Altogether Different From Those Which He Prescribes For Himself. Allow All The Governed An Equal Voice In The Government, And That, And That Only, Is Self-government.

Let Us At All Times Remember That All American Citizens Are Brothers Of A Common Country, And Should Dwell Together In Bonds Of Fraternal Feeling.

I Take It That It Is Best For All To Leave Each Man Free To Acquire Property As Fast As He Can. Some Will Get Wealthy. I Dont Believe In A Law To Prevent A Man From Getting Rich; It Would Do More Harm Than Good.

Glory To God In The Highest, Ohio Has Saved The Nation.

We The People Are The Rightful Masters Of Both Congress And The Courts, Not To Overthrow The Constitution But To Overthrow The Men Who Pervert The Constitution.

Democracies Have

I Don't S'pose Anybody On Earth Likes Gingerbread Better'n I Do-and Gets Less'n I Do.

I Affect No Contempt For The High Eminence He [senator Stephen Douglas] Has Reached. So Reached, That The Oppressed Of My Species,might Have Shared With Me In The Elevation, I Would Rather Stand On That Eminence, Than Wear The Richest Crown That Ever Pressed A Monarch's Brow.

To Say A Sheep Has 5 Legs Doesn't Make It So.

The Petition Of Persons Under Eighteen, Praying That I Would Free All Slave Children, And The Heading Of Which Petition It Appears You Wrote, Was Handed Me A Few Days Since By Senator Sumner. Please Tell These Little People I Am Very Glad Their Young Hearts Are So Full Of Just And Generous Sympathy, And That, While I Have Not The Power To Grant All They Ask, I Trust They Will Remember That God Has, And That, As It Seems, He Wills To Do It.

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.

What Constitutes The Bulwark Of Our Own Liberty And Independence? It Is Not...the Guns Of Our War Steamers, Or The Strength Of Our Gallant And Disciplined Army...our Reliance Is In The Love Of Liberty Which God Has Planted In Our Bosoms...

By All Means, Don't Say, "if I Can," Say "i Will."

I Fear Explanations Explanatory Of Things Explained.

When I So Pressingly Urge A Strict Observance Of All The Laws, Let Me Not Be Understood As Saying There Are No Bad Laws, Nor That Grievances May Not Arise, For The Redress Of Which, No Legal Provisions Have Been Made. I Mean To Say No Such Thing. But I Do Mean To Say, That, Although Bad Laws, If They Exist, Should Be Repealed As Soon As Possible, Still While They Continue In Force, For The Sake Of Example, They Should Be Religiously Observed.

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?

When I Am Getting Ready To Reason With A Man, I Spend One-third Of My Time Thinking About Myself And What I Am Going To Say And Two-thirds About Him And What He Is Going To Say.

You Cannot Build Character And Courage By Taking Away People's Initiative And Independence. You Cannot Help People Permanently By Doing For Them What They Could And Should Do For Themselves.

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.

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.

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.

Too Big To Cry Too Young To Laugh.

A Nation That Does Not Honor Its Heroes Will Not Long Endure.

Wise Statesmen ... Established These Great Self-evident Truths, That When In The Distant Future Some Man, Some Faction, Some Interest, Should Set Up The Doctrine That None But Rich Men, Or None But White Men, Were Entitled To Life, Liberty And The Pursuit Of Happiness, Their Posterity Should Look Up Again At The Declaration Of Independence And Take Courage To Renew The Battle Which Their Fathers Began.

Pursuit Of Happiness

I Must Keep Some Standard Of Principle Fixed Within Myself.

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The Time Comes Upon Every Public Man When It Is Best For Him To Keep His Lips Closed.

But, Slavery Is Good For Some People! ! ! As A Good Thing, Slavery Is Strikingly Peculiar, In This, That It Is The Only Good Thing Which No Man Ever Seeks The Good Of, For Himself.

This Country, With Its Institutions, Belongs To The People Who Inhabit It.

Constitution Of The United States

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."

I Never Tire Of Reading Tom Paine.

I Say 'try'; If We Never Try, We Shall Never Succeed.

Every Head Should Be Cultivated.

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

My Dear Mcclellan, If You Don't Want To Use The Army I Should Like To Borrow It For A While. Yours Respectfully.

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 Am Always For The Man Who Wishes To Work.

Whatever Woman May Cast Her Lot With Mine, Should Any Ever Do So, It Is My Intention To Do All In My Power To Make Her Happy And Contented; And There Is Nothing I Can Imagine That Would Make Me More Unhappy Than To Fail In The Effort.

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.

Every Person Is Responsible For His Own Looks After 40.

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.

Capital Is Only The Fruit Of Labor, And Could Never Have Existed If Labor Had Not First Existed. Labor Is The Superior Ofcapital, And Deserves Muchthe Higher Consideration.

Independent Women

Dignity Of Work

Honest Statesmanship Is The Wise Employment Of Individual Meanness For The Public Good.

I Have Always Thought That All Men Should Be Free; But If Any Should Be Slaves, It Should Be First Those Who Desire For Themselves, And Secondly Those Who Desire It For Others. Whenever I Hear Anyone Arguing For Slavery, I Feel A Strong Impulse To See It Tried On Him Personally.

We Shall Sooner Have The Fowl By Hatching The Egg Than By Smashing It.

You Are Ambitious, Which, Within Reasonable Bounds, Does Good Rather Than Harm.

I Think That If Anything Can Be Proved By Natural Theology, It Is That Slavery Is Morally Wrong. God Gave Man A Mouth To Receive Bread, Hands To Feed It, And His Hand Has A Right To Carry Bread To His Mouth Without Controversy.

When Any Church Will Inscribe Over Its Altar, As Its Sole Qualification For Membership, The Savior's Condensed Statement Of The Substance Of Both Law And Gospel, 'thou Shalt Love The Lord Thy God With All Thy Heart, And With All Thy Soul And Thy Neighbor As Thyself' That Church Will I Join With All My Heart And All My Soul.

I Am Not In Favor Of Making Voters Or Jurors Of Negroes, Nor Of Qualifying Them To Hold Office.

I Am Nothing, Truth Is Everything.

I Repeat The Declaration Made A Year Ago, That 'while I Remain In My Present Position I Shall Not Attempt To Retract Or Modify The Emancipation Proclamation, Nor Shall I Return To Slavery Any Person Who Is Free By The Terms Of That Proclamation, Or By Any Of The Acts Of Congress.' If The People Should, By Whatever Mode Or Means, Make It An Executive Duty To Re-enslave Such Persons, Another, And Not I, Must Be Their Instrument To Perform It.

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 Do It By Freeing Some And Leaving Others Alone, I Would Do That. I Have Here Stated My Purpose According To My Official Duty, And I Intend No Modification Of My Oft-expressed Personal Wish That All Men, Everywhere, Could Be Free.

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.

As Long As The Almighty Permitted Intelligent Men, Created In His Image And Likeness, To Fight In Public And Kill Each Other While The World Looks On Approvingly, It's Not For Me To Deprive The Chickens Of The Same Privilege.

I Shall Be Most Happy Indeed If I Shall Be An Humble Instrument In The Hands Of The Almighty, And Of This His Almost Chosen People.

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. I Shall Try To Correct Errors When Shown To Be Errors And I Shall Adopt New Views So Fast As They Shall Appear To Be True Views.

. . . Peace Is A Thing Which A Person Must Be Willing To Fight For . . .

So Viewing The Issue, No Choice Was Left But To Call Out The War Power Of The Government; And So To Resist Force, Employed For Its Destruction, By Force, For Its Preservation.

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 Have No Wealthy Or Popular Relations To Recommend Me.

The World Will Little Note, Nor Long Remember What We Say Here, But It Can Never Forget What They Did Here. It Is For Us The Living, Rather, To Be Dedicated Here To The Unfinished Work Which They Who Fought Here So Nobly Advanced.

Unfinished Work

If The Negro Is A Man, Why Then My Ancient Faith Teaches Me That ‘all Men Are Created Equal,' And That There Can Be No Moral Right In Connection With One Man's Making A Slave Of Another.

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.

I Do Not Think Much Of A Man Who Is Not Wiser Today Than He Was Yesterday.

Take All That You Can Of This Book Upon Reason, And The Balance On Faith, And You Will Live And Die A Happier Man. (when A Skeptic Expressed Surprise To See Him Reading A Bible)

Those Who Look For The Bad In People Will Surely Find It.

In All That People Can Do For Themselves, Government Ought Not To Interfere.

Ere Long The Most Valuable Of All Arts Will Be The Art Of Deriving A Comfortable Subsistence From The Smallest Area Of Soil. No Community Where Every Member Possesses The Art Can Ever Be The Victim Of Oppression In Any Of Its Forms.

We Meet This Evening, Not In Sorrow, But In Gladness Of Heart.

You Cannot Fail Unless You Quit.

Important Principles May, And Must, Be Inflexible.

I Am Now The Most Miserable Man Living. If What I Feel Equally Distributed To The Whole Human Family, There Would Not Be One Cheerful Face On The Earth. Whether I Shall Ever Be Better, I Cannot Tell; I Awfully Forebode I Shall Not. To Remain As I Am Is Impossible. I Must Die Or Be Better, It Appears To Me.

Writing, The Art Of Communicating Thoughts To The Mind Through The Eye, Is The Great Invention Of The World.

Can Treaties Be More Faithfully Enforced Between Aliens Than Laws Can Among Friends? Suppose You Go To War, You Cannot Fight Always; And When, After Much Loss On Both Sides, And No Gain On Either, You Cease Fighting, The Identical Old Questions As To Terms Of Intercourse Are Again Upon You.

If Ever I Feel The Soul Within Me Elevate And Expand To Those Dimensions, Not Wholly Unworthy Of Its Almighty Architect, It Is When I Contemplate The Cause Of My Country, Deserted By All The World Beside, And I Standing Up Boldly, Alone, Hurling Defiance At Her Victorious Oppressors.

Dear Sir: Yours Of The 24th. Asking 'the Best Mode Of Obtaining A Thorough Knowledge Of The Law' Is Received. The Mode Is Very Simple, Though Laborious, And Tedious. It Is Only To Get The Books, And Read, And Study Them Carefully. Begin With Blackstone's Commentaries, And After Reading It Carefully Through, Say Twice, Take Up Chitty's Pleading, Greenleaf's Evidence, & Story's Equity &c. In Succession. Work, Work, Work, Is The Main Thing.

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; Asbad And Good.

These Capitalists Generally Act Harmoniously And In Concert To Fleece The People, And Now That They Have Got Into A Quarrel With Themselves, We Are Called Upon To Appropriate The People's Money To Settle The Quarrel.

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

As We Keep Or Break The Sabbath Day We Nobly Save Or Meanly Lose The Last Best Hope By Which Man Rises.

Persuasion, Kind, Unassuming Persuasion, Should Be Adopted To Influence The Conduct Of Men. The Opposite Course Would Be A Reversal Of Human Nature, Which Is God's Decree And Can Never Be Reversed.

When Arguing With A Fool, Make Sure The Opponent Isn't Doing The Exact Same Thing.

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.

With Educated People, I Suppose, Punctuation Is A Matter Of Rule; With Me It Is A Matter Of Feeling. But I Must Say I Have A Great Respect For The Semicolin; It's A Useful Little Chap

You Can Not Fail In Any Laudable Object, Unless You Allow Your Mind To Be Improperly Directed.

While The People Retain Their Virtue And Vigilance, No Administration, By Any Extreme Of Wickedness Or Folly, Can Very Seriously Injure The Government In The Short Space Of Four Years.

All I Have Learned, I Learned From Books.

A Fellow Once Came To Me To Ask For An Appointment As A Minister Abroad. Finding He Could Not Get That, He Came Down To Some More Modest Position. Finally, He Asked To Be Made A Tide-waiter. When He Saw He Could Not Get That, He Asked Me For An Old Pair Of Trousers. It Is Sometimes Well To Be Humble.

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

The Very Spot Where Grew The Bread That Formed My Bones, I See. How Strange, Old Field, On Thee To Tread, And Feel I'm Part Of Thee.

But For That Book, We Could Not Know Right From Wrong.

I Can Make Brigadier Generals, But I Can't Make Horses.

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

We Must Ask Where We Are And Whither We Are Tending.

Always Let Your Subordinates Know That The Honor Will Be All Theirs If They Succeed And The Blame Will Be Yours If They Fail.

With Malice Towards None; With Charity For All.

I Claim Not To Have Controlled Events, But Confess Plainly That Events Have Controlled Me.

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.

I Cannot Imagine Anyone Looking At The Sky And Denying God.

His Argument Is As Thin As The Homeopathic Soup That Was Made By Oiling The Shadow Of A Pigeon That Had Been Starved To Death.

In Regards To This Great Book [the Bible], 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. But For It We Could Not Know Right From Wrong. All Things Most Desirable For Man's Welfare, Here And Hereafter, Are Found Portrayed In It.

I Expect To Maintain This Contest Until Successful, Or Till I Die, Or Am Conquered, Or My Term Expires, Or Congress Or The Country Forsakes Me.

I Never Trusted A Man Who Never Smoked Or Drank.

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

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

The People Themselves, And Not Their Servants, Can Safely Reverse Their Own Deliberate Decisions.

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.

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.

Whatever уоu Are, Bе а Good One.

I Do Not Allow Myself To Suppose That Either The Convention Or The League, Have Concluded To Decide That I Am Either The Greatest Or The Best Man In America, But Rather They Have Concluded It Is Not Best To Swap Horses While Crossing The River, And Have Further Concluded That I Am Not So Poor A Horse That They Might Not Make A Botch Of It In Trying To Swap.

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.

Confused And Stunned, Like A Duck Hit On The Head.

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

Believing Everybody Is Dangerous, But Believing Nobody Is More Dangerous.

We All Declare For Liberty, But In Using The Same Word We Do Not All Mean The Same Thing.

And You Are Entirely Free From Head-ache? That Is Good -- Good -- Considering It Is The First Spring You Have Been Free From It Since We Were Acquainted. I Am Afraid You Will Get So Well, And Fat, And Young, As To Be Wanting To Marry Again.

Fellow Countrymen: At This Second Appearing To Take The Oath Of The Presidential Office, There Is Less Occasion For An Extended Address Than There Was At The First...the Progress Of Our Arms, Upon Which All Else Chiefly Depends, Is As Well Known To The Public As To Myself; And It Is, I Trust, Reasonably Satisfactory And Encouraging To All. With High Hope For The Future, No Prediction In Regard To It Is Ventured.

Now If You Should Hear Any One Say That Lincoln Don't [sic] Want To Go To Congress, I Wish You As A Personal Friend Of Mine, Wouldtell Him That You Have Reason To Believe He Is Mistaken.

I Am Slow To Listen To Criminations Among Friends, And Never Espouse Their Quarrels On Either Side. My Sincere Wish Is That Both Sides Will Allow Bygones To Be Bygones, And Look To The Present & Future Only.

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.

Honor To The Soldier And Sailor Everywhere, Who Bravely Bears His Country's Cause. Honor, Also, To The Citizen Who Cares For His Brother In The Field And Serves, As He Best Can, The Same Cause.

Most Governments Have Been Based, Practically, On The Denial Of Equal Rights Of Menours Began, By Affirming Those Rights. They Said, Some Men Are Too Ignorant, And Vicious, To Share In Government. Possibly So, Said We; And, By Your System, You Would Always Keep Them Ignorant, And Vicious. We Proposed To Give All A Chance; And We Expected The Weak To Grow Stronger, The Ignorant Wiser; And All Better, And Happier Together.

To Give Victory To The Right, Not Bloody Bullets, But Peaceful Ballots Only, Are Necessary.

Capital Has Its Rights, Which Are As Worthy Of Protection As Any Other Right.

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

That We We Here Highly Resolve That These Dead Shall Not Have Died In Vain - That This Nation, Under God, Shall Have A New Birth Of Freedom - And That Government Of The People, By The People, For The People, Shall Not Perish From The Earth.

I Cannot Bring Myself To Believe That Any Human Being Lives Who Would Do Me Any Harm.

When You Have Got An Elephant By The Hind Legs And He Is Trying To Run Away, It's Best To Let Him Run.

I Like To See A Man Proud Of The Place In Which He Lives. I Like To See A Man Live So That His Place Will Be Proud Of Him.

I Desire So To Conduct The Affairs Of This Administration That If At The End... 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.

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

Congress And The President

Government Of The People, By The People, For The People, Shall Not Perish From The Earth.

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

Of Our Political Revolution Of '76, We All Are Justly Proud. It Has Given Us A Degree Of Political Freedom, Far Exceeding That Of Any Other Nation Of The Earth. In It The World Has Found A Solution Of The Long Mooted Problem, As To The Capability Of Man To Govern Himself. In It Was The Germ Which Has Vegetated, And Still Is To Grow And Expand Into The Universal Liberty Of Mankind.

Political Revolution

I Hear You Have Abolitionists Here. We Have A Few In Illinois, But We Shot One The Other Day.

The Almighty Has His Own Purposes.

Were It Not For My Little Jokes, I Could Not Bear The Burdens Of This Office.

Commitment Is What Transforms A Promise Into Reality.

Weakness Is What Keeps Driving Us To God, By The Overwhelming Conviction That There Just Isn't Anywhere Else To Go.

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.

Adversity Does Not Make Us Frail; It Only Shows Us How Frail We Are.

Some Day I Shall Be President.

If Slavery Is Not Wrong, Nothing Is Wrong.

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.

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.

Force Is All Conquering, But It's Victories Are Short Lived.

A Woman Is The Only Thing I Am Afraid Of That I Know Will Not Hurt Me.

I Shall Adopt New Views As Fast As They Shall Appear To Be True Views.

Continue To Execute All The Express Provisions Of Our National Constitution, And The Union Will Endure Forever-it Being Impossible To Destroy It, Except By Some Action Not Provided For In The Instrument Itself.

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.

It Often Requires More Courage To Dare To Do Right Than To Fear To Do Wrong.

Public Sentiment Is Everything. With Public Sentiment, Nothing Can Fail. Without It, Nothing Can Succeed.

You Must Think I Am A High-priced Man.... Fifteen Dollars Is Enough For The Job. I Send You A Receipt For Fifteen Dollars, And Return To You A Ten-dollar Bill.

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

This Nation Under God

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.

Human Action Can Be Modified To Some Extent, But Human Nature Can Not Be Changed

Words Of Wisdom

It Is Your Business To Rise Up And Preserve The Union And Liberty, For Yourselves, And Not For Me. I Desire They Shall Be Constitutionally Preserved.

Politics, As A Trade, Finds Most And Leaves Nearly All Dishonest.

Every Man Has A Right To Be Equal With Every Other Man.

Familiarize Yourselves With The Chains Of Bondage And You Prepare Your Own Limbs To Wear Them. Accustomed To Trample On The Rights Of Others, You Have Lost The Genius Of Your Own Independence And Become The Fit Subjects Of The First Cunning Tyrant Who Rises Among You.

I Do Not Wish To Be Misunderstood Upon This Subject Of Slavery In This Country. I Suppose It May Long Exist, And Perhaps The Best Way For It To Come To An End Peaceably Is For It To Exist For A Length Of Time. But I Say That The Spread And Strengthening And Perpetuation Of It Is An Entirely Different Proposition. There We Should In Every Way Resist It As A Wrong, Treating It As A Wrong, With The Fixed Idea That It Must And Will Come To An End.

As I Would Not Be A Slave, So I Would Not Be A Master. This Expresses My Idea Of Democracy.

Public Opinion, Though Often Formed Upon A Wrong Basis, Yet Generally Has A Strong Underlying Sense Of Justice.

If We Believe The Bible, We Must Accept The Fact That, In The Old Days, God And His Angels Came To Humans In Their Sleep And Made Themselves Known In Dreams.

It Has Been Said Of The World's History Hitherto That Might Makes Right. It Is For Us And For Our Time To Reverse The Maxim, And To Say That Right Makes Might.

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.'

No State, Upon It Own Mere Motion, Can Lawfully Get Out Of The Union. Resolves And Ordinances To That Effect Are Legally Nothing. I Therefore Consider That The Union Is Unbroken. There Needs To Be No Bloodshed Or Violence; And There Shall Be None, Unless Forced Upon The National Authority.

One Company Can Serve Some Of Your Needs All Of The Time, Or All Of Your Needs Some Of The Time, But Never Both.

Sending Armies To Mcclellan Is Like Shoveling Fleas Across A Barnyard, Not Half Of Them Get There.

I Was Raised To Farm Work.

I Hold That While A Man Exists, It Is His Duty To Improve Not Only His Own Condition, But To Assist In Ameliorating Mankind.

Here In My Heart, My Happiness, My House. Here Inside The Lighted Window Is My Love, My Hope, My Life. Peace Is My Companion On The Pathway Winding To The Threshold. Inside This Portal Dwells New Strength In The Security, Serenity, And Radiance Of Those I Love Above Life Itself. Here Two Will Build New Dreams--dreams That Tomorrow Will Come True. The World Over, These Are The Thoughts At Eventide When Footsteps Turn Ever Homeward. In The Haven Of The Hearthside Is Rest And Peace And Comfort.

Freedom Is Not The Right To Do What We Want, But What We Ought

When I Have A Particular Case In Hand, I Have That Motive And Feel An Interest In The Case, Feel An Interest In Ferreting Out The Questions To The Bottom, Love To Dig Up The Question By The Roots And Hold It Up And Dry It Before The Fires Of The Mind.

I Believe The Bible Is The Best Gift God Has Ever Given To Man. All The Good From The Savior Of The World Is Communicated To Us Through This Book.

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