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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.

-Abraham Lincoln

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I Am Approached With

Abraham Lincoln

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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.

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

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.

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

Ballots Are The Rightful And Peaceful Successors To Bullets.

There Is Nothing True Anywhere, The True Is Nowhere To Be Seen; If You Say You See The True, This Seeing Is Not The True One.

Avoid Popularity If You Would Have Peace.

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

It's Not Me Who Can't Keep A Secret. It's The People I Tell That Can't.

The Father Of Waters Again Goes Unvexed To The Sea.

I Was Raised To Farm Work.

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.

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

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

He [stephen Douglas] Is Blowing Out The Moral Lights Around Us, When He Contends That Whoever Wants Slaves Has A Right To Hold Them; That He Is Penetrating, So Far As Lies In His Power, The Human Soul, And Eradicating The Light Of Reason And The Love Of Liberty, When He Is In Every Possible Way Preparing The Public Mind, By His Vast Influence, For Making The Institution Of Slavery Perpetual And National.

Do Not Destroy That Immortal Emblem Of Humanity, The Declaration Of Independence.

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.

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.

It Is The Man Who Does Not Want To Express An Opinion Whose Opinion I Want.

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

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.

Every Man Is Born An Original, But Sadly, Most Men Die Copies.

He Has Got The Slows, Mr. Blair.

The Things I Want To Know Are In Books; My Best Friend Is The Man Who'll Get Me A Book I Ain't Read.

I Am Busily Engaged In The Study Of The Bible. I Believe It Is God's Word Because It Finds Me Where I Am.

There Is Something So Ludicrous In Promises Of Good Or Threats Of Evil A Great Way Off As To Render The Whole Subject With Which They Are Connected Easily Turned Into Ridicule.

I Must Keep Some Standard Of Principle Fixed Within Myself.

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

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.

I Trust That As He Shall Further Open The Way, I Will Be Ready To Walk Therein, Relying On His Help And Trusting In His Goodness And Wisdom.

It Is To Deny, What The History Of The World Tells Us Is True, To Suppose That Men Of Ambition And Talents Will Not Continue To Spring Up Amongst Us. And, When They Do, They Will As Naturally Seek The Gratification Of Their Ruling Passion, As Others Have So Done Before Them.

We Want, And Must Have, A National Policy, As To Slavery, Which Deals With It As Being Wrong.

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

Military Glory-that Attractive Rainbow, That Rises In Showers Of Blood-that Serpent's Eye, That Charms To Destroy.

Anybody Will Do For You, But Not For Me.

One's Only Security In Life Comes From Doing Something Uncommonly Well.

I Know The Hole He Went In At, But I Can't Tell You What Hole He Will Come Out Of.

With The Catching Ends The Pleasure Of The Chase.

A Majority Held In Restraint By Constitutional Checks And Limitations, And Always Changing Easily With Deliberate Changes Of Popular Opinions And Sentiments, Is The Only True Sovereign Of A Free People. Whoever Rejects It Does Of Necessity Fly To Anarchy Or To Despotism. Unanimity Is Impossible. The Rule Of A Minority, As A Permanent Arrangement, Is Wholly Inadmissible; So That, Rejecting The Majority Principle, Anarchy Or Despotism In Some Form Is All That Is Left.

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.

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

Making Mistakes

There Are No Accidents In My Philosophy. Every Effect Must Have Its Cause. The Past Is The Cause Of The Present, And The Present Will Be The Cause Of The Future. All These Are Links In The Endless Chain Stretching From The Finite To The Infinite.

I Care Not Much For A Man's Religion Whose Dog And Cat Are Not The Better For It.

The Ant, Who Has Toiled And Dragged A Crumb To His Nest, Will Furiously Defend The Fruit Of His Labor, Against Whatever Robber Assails Him. So Plain, That The Most Dumb And Stupid Slave That Ever Toiled For A Master, Does Constantly Know That He Is Wronged.

In Regard To This Great Book, I Have But To Say, It Is The Best Gift God Has Given To Man.

A Right Result, At This Time, Will Be Worth More To The World, Than Ten Times The Men, And Ten Times The Money.

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

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 Responded Very Impressively, Saying That He Was Deeply Sensible Of His Need Of Divine Assistance. He Had Sometime Thought That Perhaps He Might Be An Instrument In God's Hands Of Accomplishing A Great Work And He Certainly Was Not Unwilling To Be. Perhaps, However, God's Way Of Accomplishing The End Which The Memorialists Have In View May Be Different From Theirs.

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.

Nothing Valuable Can Be Lost By Taking Time.

There May Sometimes Be Ungenerous Attempts To Keep A Young Man Down; And They Will Succeed Too, If He Allows His Mind To Be Diverted From Its True Channel To Brood Over The Attempted Injury. Cast About, And See If This Feeling Has Not Injured Every Person You Have Ever Known To Fall Into It.

I Destroy My Enemy If I Make Him My Friend.

Towering Genius Distains A Beaten Path.

With This Honor Devolves Upon You Also A Corresponding Responsibility. As The Country Herein Trusts You, So Under God It Will Sustain You.

None Seemed To Think The Injury Arose From The Use Of A Bad Thing But From The Abuse Of A Very Good Thing

If This Is Coffee, Please Bring Me Some Tea; But If This Is Tea, Please Bring Me Some Coffee.

Senator Douglas Holds, We Know, That A Man May Rightfully Be Wiser Today Than He Was Yesterday - That He May Rightfully Change When He Finds Himself Wrong. But Can We, For That Reason, Run Ahead, And Infer That He Will Make Any Particular Change, Of Which He, Himself, Has Given No Intimation?

President Lincoln Was Once Criticized For His Attitude Toward His Enemies. "why Do You Try To Make Friends Of Them?" Asked An Associate. "you Should Try To Destroy Them." "am I Not Destroying My Enemies," Lincoln Gently Replied, "when I Make Them My Friends?"

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.

Without The Constitution And The Union, We Could Not Have Attained The Result; But Even These, Are Not The Primary Cause Of Our Great Prosperity. There Is Something Back Of These, Entwining Itself More Closely About The Human Heart. That Something, Is The Principle Of "liberty To All" The Principle That Clears The Path For All-gives Hope To All-and, By Consequence, Enterprize [sic], And Industry To All.

I Hold That If The Almighty Had Ever Made A Set Of Men That Should Do All The Eating And None Of The Work, He Would Have Made Them With Mouths Only And No Hands, And If He Had Ever Made Another Class That He Intended Should Do All The Work And None Of The Eating, He Would Have Made Them Without Mouths And With All Hands.

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

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

One Generation Passeth Away And Another Generation Cometh, But The Earth Abideth Forever.

I Can Make More Generals, But Horses Cost Money.

Life Is Hard But So Very Beautiful

[uniting Workers Should Not] Lead To A War Upon Property, Or The Owners Of Property.

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.

A Drop Of Honey Catches More Flies Than A Gallon Of Gall. So With Men. If You Would Win A Man To Your Cause, First Convince Him That You Are His Sincere Friend. Therein Is A Drop Of Honey Which Catches His Heart, Which, Say What He Will, Is The Highroad To His Reason.

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?

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.

Destroy Your Enemy By Making Him Your Friend.

Powerful Life Changing

I Do Not Deny The Possibility That The People May Err In An Election; But If They Do, The True [cure] Is In The Next Election, And Not In The Treachery Of The Person Elected.

It Is Bad To Be Poor. I Shall Go To The Wall For Bread And Meat, If I Neglect My Business This Year As Well As Last.

Liquor May Have Its Defenders, But It Has No Defense.

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

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

I Will Either Be America's Greatest President Or Its Last.

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.

When Met With A Problem I Always Ask Myself What Is The Right Thing To Do And Then I Do It.

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

A Majority Held In Restraint By Constitutional Checks And Limitations...is The Only True Sovereign Of A Free People. Whoever Rejects It Does Of Necessity Fly To Anarchy Or To Despotism.

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.

Our Adversaries [ The Confederate States Of America ] Have Adopted Some Declarations Of Independence In Which, Unlike The Good Old One Penned By Jefferson, They Omit The Words "all Men Are Created Equal." Why? They Have Adopted A Temporary National Constitution, In The Preamble Of Which, Unlike Our Good Old One, Signed By Washington, They Omit "we, The People," And Substitute "we, The Deputies Of The Sovereign And Independent States." Why? Why This Deliberate Pressing Out Of View, The Rights Of Men, And The Authority Of The People?

The Land-grant University System Is Being Built On Behalf Of The People, Who Have Invested In These Public Universities Their Hopes, Their Support, And Their Confidence.

It Is Not The Qualified Voters, But The Qualified Voters Who Choose To Vote, That Constitute Political Power.

Never Stir Up Litigation. A Worse Man Can Scarcely Be Found Than One Who Does This.

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

Freedom Is The Natural Condition Of The Human Race, In Which The Almighty Intended Men To Live. Those Who Fight The Purpose Of The Almighty Will Not Succeed. They Always Have Been, They Always Will Be Beaten.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Let Us Renew Our Trust In God, And Go Forward Without Fear.

Character Is Like A Tree And Reputation Like A Shadow. The Shadow Is What We Think Of It; The Tree Is The Real Thing.

I Am For Liberty Of Conscience In Its Noblest, Broadest, And Highest Sense. But I Cannot Give Liberty Of Conscience To The Pope And His Followers, The Papists, So Long As They Tell Me, Through All Their Councils, Theologians, And Canon Laws That Their Conscience Orders Them To Burn My Wife, Strangle My Children, And Cut My Throat When They Find Their Opportunity.

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.

My Father, At The Death Of His Father, Was But Six Years Of Age; And He Grew Up, Literally Without Education.

My Experience Has Taught Me That A Man Who Has No Vices Has Damned Few Virtues.

Always Bear In Mind That Your Own Resolution To Succeed Is More Important Than Any Other.

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

Our Reliance Is In The Love Of Liberty Which God Has Planted In Our Bosoms.

[t]he Man Who, In The Concrete Pressure Of A Struggle For National Independence By A Single People, Had The Coolness, Forecast, And Capacity To Introduce Into A Merely Revolutionary Document, An Abstract Truth, Applicable To All Men And All Times, And So To Embalm It There, That To-day, And In All Coming Days, It Shall Be A Rebuke And A Stumbling-block To The Very Harbingers Of Reappearing Tyranny And Oppression.

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

Legislation And Adjudication Must Follow, And Conform To, The Progress Of Society.

Progress Of Society

If As The Friends Of Colonization Hope, The Present And Coming Generations Of Our Countrymen Shall By Any Means, Succeed In Freeing Our Land From The Dangerous Presence Of Slavery; And, At The Same Time, In Restoring A Captive People To Their Long-lost Father-land, With Bright Prospects For The Future; And This Too, So Gradually, That Neither Races Nor Individuals Shall Have Suffered By The Change, It Will Indeed Be A Glorious Consummation.

For It Has Been Said, All That A Man Hath Will He Give For His Life; And While All Contribute Of Their Substance The Soldier Puts His Life At Stake, And Often Yields It Up In His Country's Cause. The Highest Merit, Then Is Due To The Soldier.

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

The Plainest Print Cannot Be Read Through A Gold Eagle.

Those Who Are Ready To Sacrifice Freedom For Security Ultimately Will Lose Both.

God Bless The Methodist Church - Bless All The Churches - And Blessed Be God, Who, In This Our Great Trial, Giveth Us The Churches.

To Lead, You Must Touch Men's Hearts.

I Have Got You Together To Hear What I Have Written Down. I Do Not Wish Your Advice About The Main Matterfor That I Have Determined For Myself.

Every Man Is Said To Have His Peculiar Ambition.

Four Score And Seven Years Ago Our Fathers Brought Forth On This Continent, A New Nation, Conceived In Liberty, And Dedicated To The Proposition That All Men Are Created Equal.

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

Nothing In This World Is Impossible To A Willing Heart.

I Always [or "often"] Walk Slowly, But I Never Walk Backwards.

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.

I Never Knew A Man Who Wished To Be Himself A Slave. Consider If You Know Any Good Thing, That No Man Desires For Himself.

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

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

Words Of Wisdom

Tangible Language, Which Often Tells More Falsehoods Than Truths.

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

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

I Know Not How To Aid You, Save In The Assurance Of One Of Mature Age, And Much Severe Experience, That You Can Not Fail, If You Resolutely Determine, That You Will Not.

Be With A Leader When He Is Right, Stay With Him When He Is Still Right, But, Leave Him When He Is Wrong.

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

I Never Trusted A Man Who Never Smoked Or Drank.

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 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.

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

Telling The Truth

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.

Others Have Been Made Fools Of By The Girls; But, This Can Never Be With Truth Said Of Me. I Most Emphatically, In This Instance,made A Fool Of Myself.

The Prudent, Penniless Beginner In The World, Labors For Wages Awhile, Saves A Surplus With Which To Buy Tools Or Land, For Himself; Then Labors On His Own Account Another While, And At Length Hires Another New Beginner To Help Him. This, Say Its Advocates, Is Free Labor-the Just And Generous, And Prosperous System, Which Opens The Way For All-gives Hope To All, And Energy, And Progress, And Improvement Of Condition To All.

The Money Power Preys On The Nation In Times Of Peace, And Conspires Against It In Times Of Adversity. It Is More Despotic Than Monarchy, More Insolent Than Autocracy, More Selfish Than Bureaucracy. It Denounces, As Public Enemies, All Who Question Its Methods Or Throw Light Upon Its Crimes.

[if Not Re-elected In 1864] Then It Will Be My Duty To So Co-operate With The President Elect, As To Save The Union Between The Election And The Inauguration; As He Will Have Secured His Election On Such Ground That He Can Not Possibly Save It Afterwards.

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.

As The Problems Are New, We Must Disenthrall Ourselves From The Past.

Why Don't You Laugh? If I Did Not Laugh I Should Die, And You Need This Medicine As Much As I Do.

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

Labor Is The Great Source From Which Nearly All, If Not All, Human Comforts And Necessities Are Drawn.

The Sense Of Obligation To Continue Is Present In All Of Us. A Duty To Strive Is The Duty Of Us All. I Felt A Call To That Duty.

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.

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. But We Have Forgotten God. We Have Forgotten The Gracious Hand Which Preserved Us In Peace, And Multiplied And Enriched And Strengthened Us; And We Have Vainly Imagined, In The Deceitfulness Of Our Hearts, That All These Blessings Were Produced By Some Superior Wisdom And Virtue Of Our Own. Intoxicated With Unbroken Success, We Have Become Too Self Sufficient To Feel The Necessity Of Redeeming And Preserving Grace, Too Proud To Pray To The God That Made Us!

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.

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.

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

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

You Cannot Have The Right To Do What Is Wrong!

Hypocrite: The Man Who Murdered His Parents, And Then Pleaded For Mercy On The Grounds That He Was An Orphan.

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

Friends And Enemies

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

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.

The Provision Of The Constitution Giving The War Making Power To Congress Was Dictated, As I Understand It, By The Following Reasons: Kings Had Always Been Involving And Impoverishing Their People In Wars, Pretending Generally, If Not Always, That The Good Of The People Was The Object. This Our Convention Understood To Be The Most Oppressive Of All Kingly Oppressions, And They Resolved To So Frame The Constitution That No Man Should Hold The Power Of Bringing This Oppression Upon Us.

I Have A Congenital Aversion To Failure.

Our Political Problem Now Is, "can We As A Nation Continue Together Permanently - Forever - Half Slave And Half Free?"

All That Harms Labor Is Treason To America.

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.

Money Will Cease To Be Master And Become The Servant Of Humanity. Democracy Will Rise Superior To The Money Power.

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

If There Is Anything That A Man Can Do Well, I Say Let Him Do It. Give Him A Chance.

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.

God Is The Silent Partner In All Great Enterprises.

In The Early Days Of The World, The Almighty Said To The First Of Our Race "in The Sweat Of Thy Face Shalt Thou Eat Bread"; And Since Then, If We Except The Light And The Air Of Heaven, No Good Thing Has Been, Or Can Be Enjoyed By Us, Without Having First Cost Labour.

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.

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.

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

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.

Half Finished Work Generally Proves To Be Labor Lost.

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.

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

No Client Ever Had Money Enough To Bribe My Conscience Or To Stop Its Utterance Against Wrong, And Oppression.

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

There Is More Involved In This Contest Than Is Realized By Every One. There Is Involved In This Struggle The Question Whether Your Children And My Children Shall Enjoy The Privileges We Have Enjoyed.

This Human Struggle And Scramble For Office, For A Way To Live Without Work, Will Finally Test The Strength Of Our Institutions.

I Agree With You, Mr. Chairman, That The Working Men Are The Basis Of All Governments, For The Plain Reason That They Are The More Numerous, And As You Added That Those Were The Sentiments Of The Gentlemen Present, Representing Not Only The Working Class, But Citizens Of Other Callings Than Those Of The Mechanic, I Am Happy To Concur With You In These Sentiments, Not Only Of The Native Born Citizens, But Also Of The Germans And Foreigners From Other Countries.

With Malice Toward None, With Charity For All, With Firmness In The Right, As God Gives Us To See The Right, Let Us Strive On To Finish The Work We Are In, To Bind Up The Nation's Wounds.

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

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

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.

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

And While It Has Not Pleased The Almighty To Bless Us With A Return Of Peace, We Can But Press On, Guided By The Best Light He Gives, Trusting That In His Own Good Time, And Wise Way, All Will Yet Be Well.

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.

Behind The Cloud The Sun Is Still Shining.

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.

All That I Am, Or Hope To Be, I Owe To My Angel Mother.

Friendship Is The Start For What You Call Love.

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

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

Tact Is The Ability To Describe Others As They See Themselves.

A Man Is About As Happy As He Makes Up His Mind To Be.

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.

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

Am I Not Destroying My Enemies When I Make Friends Of Them?

Quarrel Not At All. No Man Resolved To Make The Most Of Himself Can Spare Time For Personal Contention.

I See A Very Dark Cloud On America's Horizon, And That Cloud Is Coming From Rome.

If All Do Not Join Now To Save The Good Old Ship Of The Union This Voyage Nobody Will Have A Chance To Pilot Her On Another Voyage.

Education Does Not Mean Teaching People What They Do Not Know. It Means Teaching Them To Behave As They Do Not Behave.

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Kevin J. Anderson

Charles Perrault

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