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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.

-Abraham Lincoln

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Dear Sir: Yours Of

Abraham Lincoln

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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.

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The Health You Enjoy Is Largely Your Choice

The World Has Never Had A Good Definition Of The Word Liberty

If Both Factions, Or Neither, Shall Abuse You, You Will Probably Be About Right. Beware Of Being Assailed By One And Praised By The Other.

I Do Not Boast That God Is On My Side, I Humbly Pray That I Am On God's Side.

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.

All I Ask For The Negro Is That If You Do Not Like Him, Let Him Alone. If God Gave Him But Little, That Little Let Him Enjoy.

If You Would Win A Man To Your Cause, First Convince Him That You Are His Sincere Friend.

To Correct The Evils, Great And Small, Which Spring From Want Of Sympathy And From Positive Enmity Among Strangers, As Nations Or As Individuals, Is One Of The Highest Functions Of Civilization.

I Am A Patient Man--always Willing To Forgive On The Christian Terms Of Repentance, And Also To Give Ample Time For Repentance. Still, I Must Save This Government, If Possible. What I Cannot Do, Of Course I Will Not Do, But It May As Well Be Understood, Once For All, That I Shall Not Surrender This Game Leaving Any Available Card Unplayed.

You Have More Of A Feeling Of Personal Resentment Than I Have. Perhaps, I Have Too Little Of It, But I Never Thought It Paid.

I Could Not Sleep When I Got On Such A Hunt For An Idea Until I Had Caught It; ...this Was A Kind Of Passion With Me, And It Has Stuck By Me; For I Am Never Easy Now, When I Am Handling A Thought, Till I Have Bounded It North, And Bounded It South, And Bounded It East, And Bounded It West.

Towering Genius Disdains A Beaten Path ... It Scorns To Tread In The Footsteps Of Any Predecessor, However Illustrious. It Thirsts For Distinction.

Your Organization Will Take On The Personality Of Its Top Leaders

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.

There' S Nothing Good In War. Except Its Ending.

I Must Keep Some Standard Of Principle Fixed Within Myself.

I Hope To Stand Firm Enough To Not Go Backward, And Yet Not Go Forward Fast Enough To Wreck The Country's Cause.

Slavery Is Founded On The Selfishness Of Man's Nature - Opposition To It On His Love Of Justice. These Principles Are In Eternal Antagonism; And When Brought Into Collision So Fiercely As Slavery Extension Brings Them, Shocks And Throes And Convulsions Must Ceaselessly Follow.

I Am Slow To Learn And Slow To Forget That Which I Have Learned. My Mind Is Like A Piece Of Steel, Very Hard To Scratch Any Thing On It And Almost Impossible After You Get It There To Rub It Out.

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

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

You Have To Do Your Own Growing No Matter How Tall Your Grandfather Was.

In This Sad World Of Ours Sorrow Comes To All And It Often Comes With Bitter Agony. Perfect Relief Is Not Possible Except With Time. You Cannot Now Believe That You Will Ever Feel Better. But This Is Not True. You Are Sure To Be Happy Again. Knowing This, Truly Believing It Will Make You Less Miserable Now. I Have Had Enough Experience To Make This Statement.

Get Books, Sit Yourself Down Anywhere, And Go To Reading Them Yourself.

Elections Belong To The People. It's Their Decision.

Democracies Have

A Jury Too Often Has At Least One Member More Ready To Hang The Panel Than To Hang The Traitor.

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.

When I Do Good, I Feel Good. When I Do Bad, I Feel Bad. That's My Religion.

The Best Way To Get A Bad Law Repealed Is To Enforce It Strictly.

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.

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 Have A Congenital Aversion To Failure.

When You Make It To The Top, Turn And Reach Down For The Person Behind You.

Never Stir Up Litigation, A Worse Man Can Scarcely Be Found Than One Who Does This, Who Can Be More Nearly A Fiend Than He Who Habitually Overhauls The Register Of Deeds In Search Of Defects In Titles, Whereon To Stir Up Strife, And Put Money In His Pocket?

No Man Ever Got Lost On A Straight Road.

Nobody Has Ever Expected Me To Be President. In My Poor, Lean, Lank Face, Nobody Has Ever Seen That Any Cabbages Were Sprouting Out.

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.

But Let The Past As Nothing Be. For The Future My View Is That The Fight Must Go On.

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.

All Creation Is A Mine, And Every Man A Miner. The Whole Earth, And All Within It, Upon It, And Round About It, Including Himself ... Are The Infinitely Various "leads" From Which, Man, From The First, Was To Dig Out His Destiny.

We Shall Meanly Lose Or Nobly Save The Last Hope Of Earth.

A Man's Legs Must Be Long Enough To Reach The Ground.

An Inspection Of The Constitution Will Show That The Right Of Property In A Slave In Not "distinctly And Expressly Affirmed" In It.

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

I Am A Little Uneasy About The Abolishment Of Slavery In This District Of Columbia.

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.

Our Popular Government Has Often Been Called An Experiment. Two Points In It Our People Have Already Settled, The Successful Establishing And The Successful Administering Of It. One Still Remains, Its Successful Maintenance Against A Formidable Internal Attempt To Overthrow It.

Too Many Piglets Not Enough Tits.

We Better Know There Is A Fire Whence We See Much Smoke Rising Than We Could Know It By One Or Two Witnesses Swearing To It. The Witnesses May Commit Perjury, But The Smoke Cannot.

I Am Struggling To Maintain The Government, Not To Overthrow It. I Am Struggling Especially To Prevent Others From Overthrowing It.

It Is The Quality Of Revolutions Not To Go By Old Lines Or Old Laws; But To Break Up Both, And Make New Ones.

What Constitutes The Bulwark Of Our Own Liberty And Independence? It Is Not Our Frowning Battlements, Our Bristling Sea Coasts, Our Army And Our Navy... Our Reliance Is In The Love Of Liberty Which God Has Planted In Us. Our Defense Is In The Spirit Which Prizes Liberty As The Heritage Of All Men, In All Lands Everywhere. Destroy This Spirit And You Have Planted The Seeds Of Despotism At Your Own Doors... You Have Lost The Genius Of Your Own Independence And Become The Fit Subjects Of The First Cunning Tyrant Who Rises Among You.

As To Your Kind Wishes For Myself, Allow Me To Say I Can Not Enter The Ring On The Money Basis--first, Because, In The Main, It Iswrong; And Secondly, I Have Not, And Can Not Get, The Money. I Say, In The Main, The Use Of Money Is Wrong; But For Certain Objects, In A Political Contest, The Use Of Some, Is Both Right, And Indispensable.

I Have An Irrepressible Desire To Live Till I Can Be Assured That The World Is A Little Better For My Having Lived In It.

Famous Inspirational

I Am Not An Accomplished Lawyer.

Politicians Are A Set Of Men Who Have Interests Aside From The Interests Of The People And Who, To Say The Most Of Them, Are, Taken As A Mass, At Least One Long Step Removed From Honest Men

He Who Molds The Public Sentiment... Makes Statutes And Decisions Possible Or Impossible To Make.

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

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

Every Blade Of Grass Is A Study; And To Produce Two, Where There Was But One, Is Both A Profit And A Pleasure.

So Plain That No One, High Or Low, Ever Does Mistake It, Except In A Plainly Selfish Way; For Although Volume Upon Volume Is Written To Prove Slavery A Very Good Thing, We Never Hear Of The Man Who Wishes To Take The Good Of It, By Being A Slave Himself.

Do The People Of The South Really Entertain Fears That A Republican Administration Would, Directly, Or Indirectly, Interfere With Their Slaves, Or With Them, About Their Slaves? If They Do, I Wish To Assure You, As Once A Friend, And Still, I Hope, Not An Enemy, That There Is No Cause For Such Fears.

The Judgments Of The Lord Are True And Righteous Altogether.

Divine Revelation

What Constitutes The Bulwark Of Our Own Liberty And Independence?

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 Can See How It Might Be Possible For A Man To Look Down Upon The Earth And Be An Atheist, But I Cannot Conceive How A Man Could Look Up Into The Heavens And Say There Is No God.

Must A Government Be Too Strong For The Liberties Of Its People Or Too Weak To Maintain Its Own Existence?

Great Men Are Ordinary Men With Extra Ordinary Determination.

There Is No America Without Labor, And To Fleece The One Is To Rob The Other.

If I Have One Vice And I Can Call It Nothing Else It Is Not Able To Say 'no'.

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.'

Offering Thanks In The Midst Of Tragedy Is An American Tradition, . Even During A Bloody Civil War.

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".

Must I Shoot A Simple-minded Soldier Boy Who Deserts, While I Must Not Touch A Hair Of The Wily Agitator Who Induces Him To Desert? I Think That In Such A Cse To Silence The Agitator And Save The Boy Is Not Only Constitutional But Withal A Great Mercy.

If You Want Your Name To Be Remembered After Your Death Either Do Something Worth Writing Or Write Some Thing Worth Reading

Women Are The Only People I Am Afraid Of Who I Never Thought Would Hurt Me

But Fight We Must; And Conquer We Shall; In The End.

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

Abolition Of Slavery

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.

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.

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.

In The End, It's Not The Years In Your Life That Count. It's The Life In Your Years.

We Can Succeed Only By Concert. It Is Not 'can Any Of Us Imagine Better?, But 'can We All Do Better?

I Could Not Have Slept Tonight If I Had Left That Helpless Little Creature To Perish On The Ground.

With Firmness In The Right, As God Gives Us To See The Right.

The Principles Of Jefferson Are The Definitions And Axioms Of Free Society.

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

The Purposes Of The Almighty Are Perfect, And Must Prevail, Though We Erring Mortals May Fail To Accurately Perceive Them In Advance. 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. Meanwhile We Must Work Earnestly In The Best Lights He Gives Us, Trusting That So Working Still Conduces To The Great Ends He Ordains. Surely He Intends Some Great Good To Follow This Mighty Convulsion, Which No Mortal Could Make, And No Mortal Could Stay.

Whatever уоu Are, Bе а Good One.

I Never Encourage Deceit, And Falsehood, Especially If You Have Got A Bad Memory, Is The Worst Enemy A Fellow Can Have. The Fact Is Truth Is Your Truest Friend, No Matter What The Circumstances Are.

There Is Another Old Poet Whose Name I Do Not Now Remember Who Said, 'truth Is The Daughter Of Time.'

All That Harms Labor Is Treason To America.

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

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.

The World Shall Know That I Will Keep My Faith To Friends And Enemies, Come What Will.

Friends And Enemies

And I Am Glad To Know That There Is A System Of Labor - Where The Laborer Can Strike If He Wants To! I Would To God That Such A System Prevailed All Over The World.

All Things Desirable To Men Are Contained In The Bible.

We Hope All Danger May Be Overcome; But To Conclude That No Danger May Ever Arise Would Itself Be Extremely Dangerous.

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.

Congress And The President

The Severest Justice May Not Always Be The Best Policy

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

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

The Negative Principle That No Law Is Free Law, Is Not Much Known Except Among Lawyers.

Teach Economy. That Is One Of The First And Highest Virtues. It Begins With Saving Money.

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.

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

Constitution Of The United States

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.

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.

A Child Is A Person Who Is Going To Carry On What You Have Started ... He Will Assume Control Of Your Cities, States And Nations. He Is Going To Move In And Take Over Your Churches, Schools, Universities, And Corporations ... The Fate Of Humanity Is In His Hands.

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.

Let Us Hopethat By The Best Cultivation Of The Physical World, Beneath And Around Us; And The Intellectual And Moral World Within Us, We Shall Secure An Individual, Social And Political Prosperity And Happiness, Whose Course Shall Be Onward And Upward, And Which, While The Earth Endures, Shall Not Pass Away.

Onward And Upward

Moral Principle Is A Looser Bond Than Pecuniary Interest.

With The Fearful Strain That Is On Me Night And Day, If I Did Not Laugh I Should Die.

I Was Elected A Captain Of Volunteers--a Success Which Gave Me More Pleasure Than Any I Have Had Since.

I Could Not Sleep When I Got On The Hunt For An Idea, Until I Had Caught It. This Was A Kind Of Passion With Me, And It Has Stuck With Me.

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.

Bad Promises Are Better Broken Than Kept.

I Am Now The Most Miserable Man Living. If What I Feel Were Felt By The Whole Human Race, There Would Not Be One Cheerful Face Left On Earth.

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

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.

I Am In Favor Of A National Bank...in Favor Of The Internal Improvements System And A High Protective Tariff.

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

As A Peacemaker The Lawyer Has Superior Opportunity Of Being A Good Man.

Fondly Do We Hope, Ferverently Do We Pray, That This Mighty Scourge Of War May Speedily Pass Away.

In The First Place, I Insist That Our Fathers Did Not Make This Nation Half Slave And Half Free, Or Part Slave And Part Free. I Insist That They Found The Institution Of Slavery Existing Here. They Did Not Make It So, But They Left It So Because They Knew Of No Way To Get Rid Of It At That Time.

It Is Most Cheering And Encouraging For Me To Know That In The Efforts Which I Have Made And Am Making For The Restoration Of A Righteous Peace To Our Country, I Am Upheld And Sustained By The Good Wishes And Prayers Of God's People. No One Is More Deeply Than Myself Aware That Without His Favor Our Highest Wisdom Is But As Foolishness And That Our Most Strenuous Efforts Would Avail Nothing In The Shadow Of His Displeasure.

Did Stanton Say I Was A Damned Fool? Then I Dare Say I Must Be One, For Stanton Is Generally Right And He Always Says What He Means.

Nothing Will Divert Me From My Purpose.

Achievement Has No Color

That Some Achieve Great Success, Is Proof To All That Others Can Achieve It As Well.

I Walk Slowly, But Never Backwards.

I Find Quite As Much Material For A Lecture In Those Points Wherein I Have Failed, As In Those Wherein I Have Been Moderately Successful.

Labor Is The Superior Of Capital, And Deserves Much The Higher Consideration

Independent Women

Dignity Of Work

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

Washington's Is The Mightiest Name Of Earth - Long Since Mightiest In The Cause Of Civil Liberty; Still Mightiest In Moral Reformation. On That Name No Eulogy Is Expected. It Cannot Be. To Add Brightness To The Sun, Or Glory To The Name Of Washington, Is Alike Impossible. Let None Attempt It. In Solemn Awe Pronounce The Name, And In Its Naked Deathless Splendor Leave It Shining On.

I Laugh Because I Must Not Cry, That Is All, That Is All.

The Eyes Of That Species Of Extinct Giant, Whose Bones Fill The Mounds Of America, Have Gazed On Niagara As Our Eyes Do Now.

The World Is Agreed That Labor Is The Source From Which Human Wants Are Mainly Supplied. There Is No Dispute Upon This Point.

Should My Administration Prove To Be A Very Wicked One...or A Very Foolish One, If You, The People, Are True To Yourselves And The Constitution, There Is Little Harm I Can Do, Thank God.

Ready Are We All To Cry Out And Ascribe Motives When Our Toes Are Pinched.

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

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.

If You Once Forfeit The Confidence Of Your Fellow Citizens, You Can Never Regain Their Respect And Esteem. It Is True That You May Fool All Of The People Some Of The Time; You Can Even Fool Some Of The People All Of The Time; But You Can't Fool All Of The People All Of The Time. -speech At Clinton, Illinois, September 8, 1854.

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.

The Case Of Andrews Is Really A Very Bad One, As Appears By The Record Already Before Me. Yet Before Receiving This I Had Orderedhis Punishment Commuted To Imprisonmentand Had So Telegraphed. I Did This, Not On Any Merit In The Case, But Because I Am Trying To Evade The Butchering Business Lately.

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.

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.

Most People Are As Happy As They Want To Be.

The Legalized Liquor Business Is The Tragedy Of Our Civilization. Alcohol Is The Greatest And Most Blighting Curse Of Our Modern Civilization. The Liquor Seller Is Simply And Only A Privileged Malefactor - A Criminal.

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.

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.

Never Do Anything For Anyone Who Can Just As Well Do It Themself

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.

Don’t Criticize Them; They Are Just What We Would Be Under Similar Circumstances.

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

I Never Did Ask More, Nor Ever Was Willing To Accept Less, Than For All The States, And The People Thereof, To Take And Hold Their Places, And Their Rights, In The Union, Under The Constitution Of The United States. For This Alone Have I Felt Authorized To Struggle; And I Seek Neither More Nor Less Now.

Slavery Is Founded In The Selfishness Of Man's Nature - Opposition To It Is His Love Of Justice. These Principles Are An Eternal Antagonism; And When Brought Into Collision So Fiercely, As Slavery Extension Brings Them, Shocks And Throes And Convulsions Must Ceaselessly Follow.

Elections Belong To The People. It's Their Decision. If They Decide To Turn Their Back On The Fire And Burn Their Behinds, Then They Will Just Have To Sit On Their Blisters.

Democracies Have

Nothing In This World Is Impossible To A Willing Heart.

I Am Not Bound To Win, But I Am Bound To Be True. I Am Not Bound To Succeed, But I Am Bound To Live Up To What Light I Have.

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.

I Say Now, However, As I Have All The While Said, That On The Territorial Question - That Is, The Question Of Extending Slavery Under The National Auspices, - I Am Inflexible. I Am For No Compromise Which Assists Or Permits The Extension Of The Institution On Soil Owned By The Nation.

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.

No State, Upon Its Own Mere Motion, Can Lawfully Get Out Of The Union. Plainly, The Central Idea Of Secession, Is The Essence Of Anarchy.

Life Is Hard But So Very Beautiful

Commitment Is What Transforms A Promise Into A Reality... Commitment Is The Stuff Character Is Made Of; The Power To Change The Face Of Things. It Is The Daily Triumph Of Integrity Over Skepticism.

To Read In The Bible, As The Word Of God Himself, That "in The Sweat Of Thy Face Shalt Thou Eat Bread, ["] And To Preach There-from That, "in The Sweat Of Other Mans Faces Shalt Thou Eat Bread," To My Mind Can Scarcely Be Reconciled With Honest Sincerity.

Every One Desires To Live Long, But No One Would Be Old.

This Is A World Of Compensations; And He Who Would Be No Slave, Must Consent To Have No Slave.

Allow Me To Assure You, That Suspicion And Jealousy Never Did Help Any Man In Any Situation.

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

If Frienship Is Your Weakest Point Then You Are The Strongest Person In The World.

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

I Can Not But Hate The Prospect Of Slavery's Expansion. I Hate It Because Of The Monstrous Injustice Of Slavery Itself. I Hate It Because It Deprives Our Republican Example Of Its Just Influence In The World-enables The Enemies Of Free Institutions, With Plausibility, To Taunt Us As Hypocrites-causes The Real Friends Of Freedom To Doubt Our Sincerity.

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.

Anxiety Beclouds The Future.

Peace Will Come Soon To Stay, And So Come As To Be Worth Keeping In All Future Time. It Will Then Have Proved That Among Free Men There Can Be No Successful Appeal From The Ballot To The Bullet, And That They Who Take Such Appeal Are Sure Their Cases And Pay The Costs.

And Then, The Negro Being Doomed, And Damned, And Forgotten, To Everlasting Bondage, Is The White Man Quite Certain That The Tyrant Demon Will Not Turn Upon Him Too?

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.

You Can’t Make A Weak Man Strong By Making A Strong Man Weak

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

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.

If It Were Not For My Firm Belief In An Overruling Providence, It Would Be Difficult For Me, In The Midst Of Such Complications Of Affairs, To Keep My Reason On Its Seat. But I Am Confident That The Almighty Has His Plans, And Will Work Them Out; And, Whether We See It Or Not, They Will Be The Best For Us.

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?

If I Gave Mcclellan All The Men He Asked For, They Could Not Find Room To Lie Down; They'd Have To Sleep Standing Up.

A Man Has Not The Time To Spend Half His Life In Quarrels. If Any Man Ceases To Attack Me, I Never Remember The Past Against Him.

We Will Make Converts Day By Day; We Will Grow Strong By The Violence And Injustice Of Our Adversaries. And, Unless Truth Be A Mockery And Justice A Hollow Lie, We Will Be In The Majority After A While.

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.

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

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.

Character Is The Tree, Reputation Is The Shadow.

If At Any Time All Labour Should Cease, And All Existing Provisions Be Equally Divided Among The People, At The End Of A Single Year There Could Scarcely Be One Human Being Left Alive--all Would Have Perished By Want Of Subsistence.

The Dogmas Of The Quiet Past Are Inadequate To The Stormy Present.

Let There Be No Compromise On The Question Of Extending Slavery. If There Be, All Our Labor Is Lost, And, Ere Long, Must Be Done Again.

We Have Been The Recipients Of The Choicest Bounties Of Heaven; We Have Been Preserved These Many Years In Peace And Prosperity; We Have Grown In Numbers, Wealth, And Power As No Other Nation Has Ever Grown.

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.

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.

Give Me Six Hours To Chop Down A Tree And I Will Spend The First Four Sharpening The Axe.

I Was Raised To Farm Work.

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