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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.

-Abraham Lincoln

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If You Once Forfeit

Abraham Lincoln

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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.

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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.

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

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

What Is Conservatism? Is It Not The Adherence To The Old And Tried Against The New And Untried?

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

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

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In My Entire Life I Have Only Met Four "perfect" People... And I Disliked Them All.

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

Our Progress In Degeneracy Appears To Me To Be Pretty Rapid.

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

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

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.

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

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The Trouble With Hooker Is That He's Got His Headquarters Where His Hindquarters Aught To Be.

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

The Severest Justice May Not Always Be The Best Policy

Teach Hope To All, Despair To None.

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

Discipline Is Choosing Between What You Want Now, And What You Want Most.

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Rules Of Living Don't Worry, Eat Three Square Meals A Day,say Your Prayers, Be Courteous To Your Creditors, Keep Your Digestion Good,steer Clear Of Biliousness,exercise, Go Slow And Go Easy. May Be There Are Other Things That Your Special Case Requires To Make You Happy, But My Friend, These, I Reckon, Will Give You A Good Life.

Next To Creating A Life The Finest Thing A Man Can Do Is Save One.

It Is Rather For Us Here Dedicated To The Great Task Remaining Before Us, That From These Honored Dead We Take Increased Devotion To That Cause For Which They Gave The Last Full Measure Of Devotion.

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The Philosophy Of The School Room In One Generation Will Be The Philosophy Of Government In The Next.

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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.

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.

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

A Good, Real, Unrestrained, Hearty Laugh Is A Sort Of Glorified Internal Massage, Performed Rapidly And Automatically. It Manipulates And Revitalizes Corners And Unexplored Crannies Of The System That Are Unresponsive To Most Other Exercise Methods. With The Fearful Strain That Is On Me Night And Day, If I Did Not Laugh I Should Die.

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The Ballot Is Stronger Than The Bullet.

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And By Virtue Of The Power, And For The Purpose Aforesaid, I Do Order And Declare That All Persons Held As Slaves Within Said Designated States, And Parts Of States, Are, And Henceforward Shall Be Free; And That The Executive Government Of The United States, Including The Military And Naval Authorities Thereof, Will Recognize And Maintain The Freedom Of Said Persons.

I Could Write Shorter Sermons But When I Get Started I'm Too Lazy To Stop

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

Our Government Rests In Public Opinion. Whoever Can Change Public Opinion, Can Change The Government, Practically Just So Much.

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

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.

Free Labor Has The Inspiration Of Hope; Pure Slavery Has No Hope.

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

I Have Come To The Conclusion Never Again To Think Of Marrying, And For This Reason, I Can Never Be Satisfied With Anyone Who Would Be Blockhead Enough To Have Me.

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

If Slavery Is Not Wrong, Nothing Is Wrong.

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.

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

The Human Mind Is Impelled To Action, Or Held In Rest By Some Power, Over Which The Mind Itself Has No Control.

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.

Property Is The Fruit Of Labor; Property Is Desirable; It Is A Positive Good.

Cortissoz Was Art Critic Of The New York Herald Tribune.

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

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.

I Have Really Got It Into My Head To Try To Be United States Senator, And, If I Could Have Your Support, My Chances Would Be Reasonably Good. But I Know, And Acknowledge, That You Have As Just Claims To The Place As I Have; And Therefore I Cannot Ask You To Yield To Me, If You Are Thinking Of Becoming A Candidate, Yourself. If, However, You Are Not, Then I Should Like To Be Remembered Affectionately By You; And Also To Have You Make A Mark For Me With The Anti-nebraska Members Down Your Way.

What Are You Gonna Do For A Face When The Baboon Wants His Ass Back?

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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.

Faith Is Not Believing That God Can, But That God Will.

Lets Have Faith That Right Makes Might; And In That Faith Let Us, To The End, Dare To Do Our Duty As We Understand It.

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.

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

Without Divine Assistance I Can Not Succeed; With It I Can Not Fail.

Labor Is Superior To Capital And Precedes Capital. Without Labor, There Is No Capital.

Never Let Your Correspondence Fall Behind.

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

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

The Best Time To Stop A Fight Is Before It Starts. The Best Vitamin For Developing Friends Is B1. The Best Way To Destroy An Enemy In To Make Him A Friend.

He Can Compress The Most Words Into The Smallest Ideas Of Any Man I Ever Met.

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

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

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.

Let Reverence For The Laws, Be Breathed By Every American Mother, To The Lisping Babe, That Prattles On Her Lap - Let It Be Taught In Schools, In Seminaries, And In Colleges; Let It Be Written In Primmers, Spelling Books, And In Almanacs; Let It Be Preached From The Pulpit, Proclaimed In Legislative Halls, And Enforced In Courts Of Justice.

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.

One Is A Majority If He Is Right.

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.

I Appeal To All Loyal Citizens To Favor, Facilitate And Aid This Effort To Maintain The Honor, The Integrity, And The Existence Of Our National Union, And The Perpetuity Of Popular Government; And To Redress Wrongs Already Long Enough Endured.

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As A General Rule Never Take Your Whole Fee In Advance, Nor Any More Than A Small Retainer. When Fully Paid Beforehand, You Are More Than A Common Mortal If You Can Feel The Same Interest In The Case, As If Something Was Still In Prospect For You, As Well As For Your Client.

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Study The Constitution. Let It Be Preached From The Pulpit, Proclaimed In Legislatures, And Enforced In Courts Of Justice.

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

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

I Am Absent Altogether Too Much To Be A Suitable Instructor For A Law-student. When A Man Has Reached The Age That Mr. Widner Has,and Has Already Been Doing For Himself, My Judgment Is, That He Reads The Books For Himself Without An Instructor. That Is Precisely The Way I Came To The Law.

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

It Is A Sin To Be Silent When It Is Your Duty To Protest.

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

The Best Thing About The Future Is That It Comes One Day At A Time.

I Want It Said Of Me By Those Who Knew Me Best, That I Always Plucked A Thistle And Planted A Flower Where I Thought A Flower Would Grow.

The Will Of God Prevails.

If I Care To Listen To Every Criticism, Let Alone Act On Them, Then This Shop May As Well Be Closed For All Other Businesses. I Have Learned To Do My Best, And If The End Result Is Good Then I Do Not Care For Any Criticism, But If The End Result Is Not Good, Then Even The Praise Of Ten Angels Would Not Make The Difference.

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.

Kindness Is The Only Service That Will Stand The Storm Of Life And Not Wash Out. It Will Wear Well And Will Be Remembered Long After The Prism Of Politeness Or The Complexion Of Courtesy Has Faded Away.

A Child Is A Person Who Is Going To Carry On What You Have Started ... The Fate Of Humanity Is In His Hands.

Tangible Language, Which Often Tells More Falsehoods Than Truths.

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

I Would Rather Be A Little Nobody, Then To Be A Evil Somebody.

If Any Should Be Slaves, It Should Be First Those Who Desire It For Themselves, And Secondly, Those Who Desire It For Others

The Only Assurance Of Our Nation's Safety Is To Lay Our Foundation In Morality And Religion.

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

New Relationship

I Believe This Government Cannot Endure, Permanently Half Slave And Half Free.

Let All Americans - Let All Lovers Of Liberty Everywhere - Join In The Great And Good Work. If We Do This, We Shall Not Only Have Saved The Union; But We Shall Have So Saved It, As To Make, And To Keep It, Forever Worthy Of The Saving.

I Never Trusted A Man Who Never Smoked Or Drank.

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

Neither Party Expected For The War, The Magnitude, Or The Duration, Which It Has Already Attained. Neither Anticipated That The Cause Of The Conflict Might Cease With, Or Even Before, The Conflict Itself Should Cease.

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

It Is For Us And Our Time...to Say The Right Makes Might.

Too Big To Cry Too Young To Laugh.

Upon The Subject Of Education, Not Presuming To Dictate Any Plan Or System Respecting It, I Can Only Say That I View It As The Most Important Subject Which We As A People Can Be Engaged In. That Every Man May Receive At Least A Moderate Education...appears To Be An Object Of Vital Importance...

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

We Must Free The Slaves Or Be Ourselves Subdued.

Our Common Country Is In Great Peril, Demanding The Loftiest Views, And Boldest Action To Bring It Speedy Relief.

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.

He Will Have To Learn, I Know, That All People Are Not Just- That All Men And Women Are Not True. Teach Him That For Every Scoundrel There Is A Hero That For Every Enemy There Is A Friend. Let Him Learn Early That The Bullies Are The Easiest People To Lick.

My Earlier Views Of The Unsoundness Of The Christian Scheme Of Salvation And The Human Origin Of The Scriptures Have Become Clearer And Stronger With Advancing Years, And I See No Reason For Thinking I Shall Ever Change Them.

And, Inasmuch [as] Most Good Things Are Produced By Labour, It Follows That All Such Things Of Right Belong To Those Whose Labour Has Produced Them. But It Has So Happened In All Ages Of The World, That Some Have Laboured, And Others Have, Without Labour, Enjoyed A Large Proportion Of The Fruits. This Is Wrong, And Should Not Continue. To [secure] To Each Labourer The Whole Product Of His Labour, Or As Nearly As Possible, Is A Most Worthy Object Of Any Good Government.

Don't Kneel To Me, That Is Not Right. You Must Kneel To God Only, And Thank Him For The Liberty You Will Hereafter Enjoy.

The Strongest Bond Of Human Sympathy Outside The Family Relation Should Be One Uniting Working People Of All Nations And Tongues And Kindreds.

The Father Of Waters Again Goes Unvexed To The Sea.

He Has Got The Slows, Mr. Blair.

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.

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.

But The Proclamation, As Law, Either Is Valid, Or Is Not Valid. If It Is Not Valid, It Needs No Retraction. If It Is Valid, It Can Not Be Retracted, Any More Than The Dead Can Be Brought To Life.

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.

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.

The Strength Of A Nation Lies In The Homes Of Its People.

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

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

Work, Work, Work, Is The Main Thing.

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.

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.

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.

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

You Know I Dislike Slavery; And You Fully Admit The Abstract Wrong Of It.

Surely He Intends Some Great Good To Follow This Mighty Convulsion Which No Mortal Could Make, And No Mortal Could Stay.

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.

Everybody Appreciates A Compliment.

My Paramount Object In This Struggle Is To Save The Union, And Is Not Either To Save Or To Destroy Slavery. If I Could Save The Union Without Freeing Any Slave I Would Do It, And If I Could Save It By Freeing All The Slaves I Would Do It; And If I Could Save It By Freeing Some And Leaving Others Alone I Would Also Do That. What I Do About Slavery, And The Colored Race, I Do Because I Believe It Helps To Save The Union; And What I Forbear, I Forbear Because I Do Not Believe It Would Help To Save The Union.

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.

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

In Using The Strong Hand, As Now Compelled To Do, The Government Has A Difficult Duty To Perform. At The Very Best, It Will By Turns Do Both Too Little And Too Much. It Can Properly Have No Motive Of Revenge, No Purpose To Punish Merely For Punishment's Sake. While We Must, By All Available Means, Prevent The Overthrow Of The Government, We Should Avoid Planting And Cultivating Too Many Thorns In The Bosom Of Society.

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

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

If You Have Never Failed You Have Never Lived.

Short Inspirational Life

How Many Times Have I Laughed At You Telling Me Plainly That I Was Too Lazy To Be Anything But A Lawyer.

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John B. S. Haldane

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