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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.

-Abraham Lincoln

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It Is To Deny,

Abraham Lincoln

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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.

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He Who Sees Cruelty And Does Nothing About It Is Himself Cruel.

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

Nations Do Not Die From Invasion; They Die From Internal Rottenness.

I Can Only Say That I Have Acted Upon My Best Convictions, Without Selfishness Or Malice, And That By The Help Of God I Shall Continue To Do So.

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.

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

Submitted To The Sec. Of War. On Principle I Dislike An Oath Which Requires A Man To Swear He Has Not Done Wrong. It Rejects The Christian Principle Of Forgiveness On Terms Of Repentance. I Think It Is Enough If The Man Does No Wrong Hereafter.

[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.

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

Surely God Would Not Have Created Such A Being As Man, With An Ability To Grasp The Infinite, To Exist Only For A Day! No, No, Man Was Made For Immortality.

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

I Fear Explanations Explanatory Of Things Explained.

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.

Never Change Horses In Midstream.

We Must Not Promise What We Ought Not, Lest We Be Called On To Perform What We Cannot.

Keeping Promises

I Never Had A Policy; I Have Just Tried To Do My Very Best Each And Every Day.

Most Folks Are As Happy As They Make Up Their Minds To Be.

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.

Let No Young Man Choosing The Law For A Calling For A Moment Yield To The Popular Belief -- Resolve To Be Honest At All Events; And If In Your Own Judgment You Cannot Be An Honest Lawyer, Resolve To Be Honest Without Being A Lawyer.

I Remember My Mother's Prayers And They Have Always Followed Me. They Have Clung To Me All My Life.

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

When I Get Ready To Talk To People, I Spend Two Thirds Of The Time Thinking What They Want To Hear And One Third Thinking About What I Want To Say.

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

My Best Friend Is A Person Who Will Give Me A Book I Have Not Read.

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

Trusting In Him, Who Can Go With Me, And Remain With You And Be Every Where For Good, Let Us Confidently Hope That All Will Yet Be Well. To His Care Commending You, As I Hope In Your Prayers You Will Commend Me, I Bid You An Affectionate Farewell.

You Cannot Fail Unless You Quit.

Gold Is Good In Its Place, But Living, Brave, Patriotic Men Are Better Than Gold.

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

Most People Are As Happy As They Want To Be.

I Think To Lose Kentucky Is Nearly The Same As To Lose The Whole Game.

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.

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.

What I Want Is To Get Done What The People Desire To Have Done, And The Question For Me Is How To Find That Out Exactly.

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

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.

It Behooves Us Then To Humble Ourselves Before The Offended Power To Confess Our National Sins And To Pray For Clemency And Forgiveness.

When We Were The Political Slaves Of King George, And Wanted To Be Free, We Called The Maxim That "all Men Are Created Equal" A Self Evident Truth; But Now When We Have Grown Fat, And Have Lost All Dread Of Being Slaves Ourselves, We Have Become So Greedy To Be Masters That We Call The Same Maxim "a Self Evident Lie" The Fourth Of July Has Not Quite Dwindled Away; It Is Still A Great Day-for Burning Fire-crackers!!!

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."

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.

Labor Is Prior To, And Independent Of, Capital. Capital Is Only The Fruit Of Labor, And Could Never Have Existed If Labor Had Not First Existed. Labor Is The Superior Of Capital, And Deserves Much The Higher Consideration.

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

Again I Admonish You Not To Be Turned From Your Stern Purpose Of Defending Your Beloved Country And Its Free Institutions By Any Arguments Urged By Ambitious And Designing Men, But Stand Fast To The Union And The Old Flag.

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

I Am Much Indebted To The Good Christian People Of The Country For Their Constant Prayers And Consolations; And To No One Of Them, More Than To Yourself.

It Is Not 'is God On My Side', But 'am I On God's Side'.

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.

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

Freedom Is The Last, Best Hope Of Earth.

Let Us Diligently Apply The Means, Never Doubting That A Just God, In His Own Good Time, Will Give Us The Rightful Result.

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

Every Man Is Said To Have His Peculiar Ambition. Whether It Be True Or Not, I Can Say For One That I Have No Other So Great As That Of Being Truly Esteemed Of My Fellow Men, By Rendering Myself Worthy Of Their Esteem.

Honor Is Better Than Honors.

Everybody Likes A Compliment.

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

Character Is Like A Tree, And Reputation Is Like Its Shadow.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

My Paramount Objective In This Struggle Is To Save The Union, And Is Not To Either Save Or Destroy Slavery.

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.

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

To Stand In Silence When They Should Be Protesting Makes Cowards Of Men.

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.

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

Received As I Am By The Members Of A Legislature The Majority Of Whom Do Not Agree With Me In Political Sentiments, I Trust That I May Have Their Assistance In Piloting The Ship Of State Through This Voyage, Surrounded By Perils As It Is; For If It Should Suffer Wreck Now, There Will Be No Pilot Ever Needed For Another Voyage.

Don't Interfere With Anything In The Constitution. That Must Be Maintained, For It Is The Only Safeguard Of Our Liberties.

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

I 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 Am Sure That Either The One Or The Other Class Is Mistaken In That Belief, And Perhaps In Some Respects Both.

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.

This Nation Under God

The Way For A Young Man To Rise Is To Improve Himself In Every Way He Can, Never Suspecting That Anybody Wishes To Hinder Him.

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

The Constitution Is Not A Suicide Pact.

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

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

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.

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

Making Mistakes

It's Time For Me To Go. But I Would Rather Stay.

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

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

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

Congress And The President

If I Were To Try To Read, Much Less Answer, All The Attacks Made On Me, This Shop Might As Well Be Closed For Any Other Business.

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.

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

And Upon This Act [emancipation Proclamation]...i Invoke...the Gracious Favor Of Almighty God.

Emancipation Proclamation

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. Leaving The Higher Matter Of Eternal Consequences, Between Him And His Maker, I Still Do Not Think Any Man Has The Right Thus To Insult The Feelings, And Injure The Morals, Of The Community In Which He May Live.

I Believe Each Individual Is Naturally Entitled To Do As He Pleases With Himself And The Fruit Of His Labor, So Far As It In No Wise Interferes With Any Other Mans Rightsthat Each Community, As A State, Has A Right To Do Exactly As It Pleases With All The Concerns Within That State That Interfere With The Right Of No Other State, And That The General Government, Upon Principle, Has No Right To Interfere With Anything Other Than That General Class Of Things That Does Concern The Whole.

Twenty-two Years Ago Judge [then-senator Stephen] Douglas And I First Became Acquainted. We Were Both Young Then; He A Trifle Younger Than I. Even Then, We Were Both Ambitious; I, Perhaps, Quite As Much So As He. With Me, The Race Of Ambition Has Been A Failure--a Flat Failure; With Him It Has Been One Of Splendid Success.

If We Have No Friends, We Have No Pleasure; And If We Have Them, We Are Sure To Lose Them, And Be Doubly Pained By The Loss.

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

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

I Think The Authors Of That Notable Instrument [the Declaration Of Independence] Intended To Include All Men.

God Is The Silent Partner In All Great Enterprises.

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

Be Sure You Put Your Feet In The Right Place, Then Stand Firm.

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.

The Love Of Property And Consciousness Of Right And Wrong Have Conflicting Places In Our Organization, Which Often Makes A Man's Course Seem Crooked, His Conduct A Riddle.

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.

Government Should Stand Behind Its Currency And Credit And The Bank Deposits Of The Nation. No Individual Should Suffer A Loss Of Money Through Depreciation Or Inflated Currency Of Bank Bankruptcy.

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

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

A Prohibition Law Strikes A Blow At The Very Principles Upon Which Our Government Was Founded.

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.

Too Many Piglets Not Enough Tits.

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

From Whence Shall We Expect The Approach Of Danger? Shall Some Trans-atlantic Military Giant Step The Earth And Crush Us At A Blow? Never. All The Armies Of Europe And Asia...could Not By Force Take A Drink From The Ohio River Or Make A Track On The Blue Ridge In The Trial Of A Thousand Years. No, If Destruction Be Our Lot We Must Ourselves Be Its Author And Finisher. As A Nation Of Free Men We Will Live Forever Or Die By Suicide.

A Statesman Is He Who Thinks In The Future Generations, And A Politician Is He Who Thinks In The Upcoming Elections.

On The Whole, My Impression Is That Mercy Bears Richer Fruits Than Any Other Attribute.

I Have Seen Your Despatch Expressing Your Unwillingness To Break Your Hold Where You Are. Neither Am I Willing. Hold On With A Bull-dog Gripe, And Chew & Choke, As Much As Possible.

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

In Your Hands, My Dissatisfied Fellow-countrymen, And Not In Mine, Is The Momentous Issue Of Civil War.

We Seek Not To Overthrow The Constitution, But To Overthrow Those Who Would Prevert It.

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

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.

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.'

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

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

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.

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.

Let The People Know The Truth And The Country Is Safe.

Friends, I Agree With You In Providence; But I Believe In The Providence Of The Most Men, The Largest Purse, And The Longest Cannon.

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

I Have No Purpose To Introduce Political And Social Equality Between The White And Black Races. There Is Physical Difference Between The Two Which, In My Judgment, Will Probably Forever Forbid Their Living Together Upon The Footing Of Perfect Equality, And Inasmuch As It Becomes A Necessity That There Must Be A Difference, I, As Well As Judge Douglas, Am In Favor Of The Race To Which I Belong Having The Superior Position.

Our Common Country Is In Great Peril, Demanding The Loftiest Views, And Boldest Action To Bring It Speedy Relief. Once Relieved, Its Form Of Government Is Saved To The World; Its Beloved History, And Cherished Memories, Are Vindicated; And Its Happy Future Fully Assured, And Rendered Inconceivably Grand.

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

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.

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.

It Must Now Atone In Blood For Its Complicity In Wickedness.

In This Age, In This Country, Public Sentiment Is Everything. With It, Nothing Can Fail; Against It, Nothing Can Succeed. Whoever Molds Public Sentiment Goes Deeper Than He Who Enacts Statutes, Or Pronounces Judicial Decisions.

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.

I Desire To See The Time When Education, And By Its Means, Morality, Sobriety, Enterprise And Industry Shall Become Much More General Than At Present.

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.

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.

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

I Am Naturally Anti-slavery. If Slavery Is Not Wrong, Nothing Is Wrong. I Can Not Remember When I Did Not So Think, And Feel. And Yet I Have Never Understood That The Presidency Conferred Upon Me An Unrestricted Right To Act Officially Upon This Judgment And Feeling.

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

Both Read The Same Bible And Pray To The Same God, And Each Invokes His Aid Against The Other.

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 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.

And Having Thus Chosen Our Course, Without Guile, And With Pure Purpose, Let Us Renew Our Trust In God, And Go Forward Without Fear, And With Manly Hearts.

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.

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.

He Has Got The Slows, Mr. Blair.

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.

The Highest Art Is Always The Most Religious, And The Greatest Artist Is Always A Devout Person.

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

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

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

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.

Whereas, The Senate Of The United States, Devoutly Recognizing The Supreme Authority And Just Government Of Almighty God, In All The Affairs Of Men And Of Nations, Has, By A Resolution, Requested The President To Designate And Set Apart A Day For National Prayer And Humiliation.

The Only Security A Man Can Ever Have Is The Ability To Do A Job Uncommonly Well.

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

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

All Things Desirable To Men Are Contained In The Bible.

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

Bring Me Longstreet's Head On A Platter And The War Will Be Over

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

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

In Order To Win A Man To Your Cause, You Must First Reach His Heart, The Great High Road To His Reason.

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.

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

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.

The Damnest Scoundrel That Ever Lived, But In The Infinite Mercy Of Providence... Also The Damnest Fool.

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.

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

Things May Come To Those Who Wait, But Only The Things Left By Those Who Hustle.

God Can Not Be For, And Against The Same Thing At The Same Time.

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

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

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 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.

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

If I Were To Try To Read, Much Less Answer, All The Attacks Made On Me, This Shop Might As Well Be Closed For Any Other Business. I Do The Very Best I Know How - The Very Best I Can; And I Mean To Keep Doing So Until The End. If The End Brings Me Out All Right, What's Said Against Me Won't Amount To Anything. If The End Brings Me Out Wrong, Ten Angels Swearing I Was Right Would Make No Difference.

Without The Assistance Of That Divine Being...i Cannot Succeed. With That Assistance I Cannot Fail.

[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.

Don't Swap Horses In The Middle Of The Stream.

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.

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

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.

You Cannot Help Small Men By Tearing Down Big Men.

Upon This Subject, The Habits Of Our Whole Species Fall Into Three Great Classes--useful Labour, Useless Labour And Idleness. Of These The First Only Is Meritorious; And To It All The Products Of Labour Rightfully Belong; But The Two Latter, While They Exist, Are Heavy Pensioners Upon The First, Robbing It Of A Large Portion Of It's Just Rights. The Only Remedy For This Is To, As Far As Possible, Drive Useless Labour And Idleness Out Of Existence.

Towering Genius Disdains A Beaten Path. It Seeks Regions Hitherto Unexplored.

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

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.

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?

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

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

Independent Women

Dignity Of Work

That I Am Not A Member Of Any Christian Church, Is True; But I Have Never Denied The Truth Of The Scriptures; And I Have Never Spoken With Intentional Disrepect Of Religion In General, Or Of Any Denomination Of Christians In Particular.

Friendship Is The Start For What You Call Love.

Talk To The Jury As Though Your Client's Fate Depends On Every Word You Utter.

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

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.

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Rafael Palmeiro

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