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Its Authors Meant It To Be... A Stumbling Block To Those Who In After Times Might Seek To Turn A Free People Back Into The Hateful Paths Of Despotism. They Knew The Proneness Of Prosperity To Breed Tyrants, And They Meant When Such Should Re-appear In This Fair Land And Commence Their Vocation They Should Find Left For Them At Least One Hard Nut To Crack.

-Abraham Lincoln

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Its Authors Meant It

Abraham Lincoln

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Its Authors Meant It To Be... A Stumbling Block To Those Who In After Times Might Seek To Turn A Free People Back Into The Hateful Paths Of Despotism. They Knew The Proneness Of Prosperity To Breed Tyrants, And They Meant When Such Should Re-appear In This Fair Land And Commence Their Vocation They Should Find Left For Them At Least One Hard Nut To Crack.

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Let Reverence For The Laws . . . Become The Political Religion Of The Nation.

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.

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

Neither Let Us Be Slandered From Our Duty By False Accusations Against Us, Nor Frightened From It By Menaces Of Destruction ... Nor Of Dungeons To Ourselves. Let Us Have Faith That Right Makes Might, And In That Faith, Let Us, To The End, Dare To Do Our Duty As We Understand It.

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

Telling The Truth

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.

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

If 600,000 People Have To Die In Order For The Nation To Live, Then 600,000 People Will Die.

The Union, And The Constitution, Are The Picture Of Silver, Subsequently Framed Around It. The Picture Was Not Made To Conceal Or Destroy The Apple, But To Adorn And Preserve It. The Picture Was Made For The Apple-not The Apple For The Picture.

Peace Does Not Appear So Distant As It Did. I Hope It Will Come Soon, And Come To Stay; And So Come As To Be Worth The Keeping In All Future Time.

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

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

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

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.

Achievement Has No Color

You Can't Help The Poor By Being One Of Them.

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

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

Friends And Enemies

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.

Why Don't I Drink From A Straw? Because Straws Are For Suckers.

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

He Has A Right To Criticize, Who Has A Heart To Help.

A Friend Is One Who Has The Same Enemies As You Have.

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.

We Find Ourselves Under The Government Of A System Of Political Institutions, Conducing More Essentially To The Ends Of Civil And Religious Liberty, Than Any Of Which The History Of Former Times Tells Us.

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.

Nothing Will Divert Me From My Purpose.

Few Can Be Induced To Labor Exclusively For Posterity - Posterity Has Done Nothing For Us

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

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

Pursuit Of Happiness

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

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

All Creation Is A Mine, And Every Man A Miner.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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?

You Can Tell The Greatness Of A Man By What Makes Him Angry

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

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.

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

Democracies Have

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.

Half Finished Work Generally Proves To Be Labor Lost.

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

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.

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.

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.

Life Is Hard But So Very Beautiful

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.

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.

Don't Pray That God's On Our Side, Pray That We're On His Side.

With High Hope For The Future, No Prediction Is Ventured.

Hope For The Future

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

I Am Not A Very Sentimental Man; And The Best Sentiment I Can Think Of Is, That If You Collect The Signatures Of All Persons Who Are No Less Distinguished Than I, You Will Have A Very Undistinguishing Mass Of Names.

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

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.

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

I Hold It To Be A Paramount Duty Of Us In The Free States, Due To The Union Of The States, And Perhaps To Liberty Itself (paradox Though It May Seem) To Let The Slavery Of The Other States Alone; While, On The Other Hand, I Hold It To Be Equally Clear, That We Should Never Knowingly Lend Ourselves Directly Or Indirectly, To Prevent That Slavery From Dying A Natural Death--to Find New Places For It To Live In, When It Can No Longer Exist In The Old.

Leave Nothing For To-morrow Which Can Be Done To-day.

Procrastination

The Written Word May Be Man's Greatest Invention. It Allows Us To Converse With The Dead, The Absent, And The Unborn.

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.

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.

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.

Stand With Anybody That Stands Right, Stand With Him While He Is Right And Part With Him When He Goes Wrong.

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

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

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.

Men Are Not Flattered By Being Shown That There Has Been A Difference Of Purpose Between The Almighty And Them. To Deny It, However, In This Case, Is To Deny That There Is A God Governing The World. It Is A Truth Which I Thought Needed To Be Told; And As Whatever Of Humilation There Is In It, Falls Most Directly On Myself, I Thought Others Might Afford For Me To Tell It.

And Whereas This House Desires To Obtain A Full Knowledge Of All The Facts Which Go To Establish Whether The Particular Spot Of Soil Which The Blood Of Our Citizens Was So Shed Was, Or Was Not, Our Own Soil.

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

If We Know Where We Are And Something About How We Got There, We Might See Where We Are Trending - And If The Outcomes Which Lie Naturally In Our Course Are Unacceptable, To Make Timely Change.

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

I Am Always For The Man Who Wishes To Work.

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.

As A General Rule, I Abstain From Reading Reports Of Attacks Upon Myself, Wishing Not To Be Provoked By That To Which I Cannot Properly Offer An Answer.

You Cannot Have The Right To Do What Is Wrong!

Now What Is Judge Douglas Popular Sovereignty? It Is, As A Principle, No Other Than That, If One Man Chooses To Make A Slave Of Another Man, Neither That Other Man Nor Anybody Else Has A Right To Object.

Beavers Build Houses; But They Build Them In Nowise Differently, Or Better Now, Than They Did, Five Thousand Years Ago. Ants, And Honey-bees, Provide Food For Winter; But Just In The Same Way They Did, When Solomon Referred The Sluggard To Them As Patterns Of Prudence. Man Is Not The Only Animal Who Labors; But He Is The Only One Who Improves His Workmanship.

The Almighty Has His Own Purposes.

The Trouble With Too Many People Is They Believe The Realm Of Truth Always Lies Within Their Vision.

Extemporaneous Speaking Should Be Practised And Cultivated. It Is The Lawyer's Avenue To The Public.

Public Speaking

Whenever I Hear Anyone Arguing For Slavery, I Feel A Strong Impulse To See It Tried On Him Personally.

I Was Raised To Farm Work.

I Have Never United Myself To Any Church Because I Found Difficulty In Giving My Assent Without Mental Reservation To The Long, Complicated Statements Of Christian Doctrine Which Characterize The Articles Of Belief And The Usual Confession Of Faith.

You Dislike The Emancipation Proclamation; And, Perhaps, Would Have It Retracted. You Say It Is Unconstitutional - I Think Differently.

Emancipation Proclamation

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

I Have A Congenital Aversion To Failure.

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...

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.

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

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.

The Purposes Of The Almighty Are Perfect, And Must Prevail, Though We Erring Mortals May Fail To Accurately Perceive Them In Advance.

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

The Leading Rule For The Lawyer, As For The Man Of Every Other Calling, Is Diligence. Leave Nothing For To-morrow Which Can Be Done To-day. Never Let Your Correspondence Fall Behind. Whatever Piece Of Business You Have In Hand, Before Stopping, Do All The Labor Pertaining To It Which Can Then Be Done.

Character Is The Tree, Reputation Is The Shadow.

I Had Been Told I Was On The Road To Hell, But I Had No Idea It Was Just A Mile Down The Road With A Dome On It.

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.

It's Bad. It's Damned Bad.

I Have Had So Many Evidences Of [god's] Direction, So Many Instances When I Have Been Controlled By Some Other Power Than My Own Will, That I Cannot Doubt That This Power Comes From Above.

Evidence Of God

The Severest Justice May Not Always Be The Best Policy

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.

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

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

Much Is Being Said About Peace; And No Man Desires Peace More Ardently Than I. Still I Am Yet Unprepared To Give Up The Union Fora Peace Which, So Achieved, Could Not Be Of Much Duration.

The Plainest Print Cannot Be Read Through A Gold Eagle.

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.

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

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?

Let Every American, Every Lover Of Liberty, Every Well Wisher To His Posterity, Swear By The Blood Of The Revolution, Never To Violate In The Least Particular, The Laws Of The Country; And Never To Tolerate Their Violation By Others.

Remembering That Peter Denied His Lord With An Oath, After Most Solemnly Protesting That He Never Would, I Will Not Swear I Will Make No Committals; But I Do Think I Will Not.

Gen. Schurz Thinks I Was A Little Cross In My Late Note To You. If I Was, I Ask Pardon. If I Do Get Up A Little Temper I Have No Sufficient Time To Keep It Up.

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.

Sir, My Concern Is Not Whether God Is On Our Side; My Greatest Concern Is To Be On God's Side, For God Is Always Right.

I Wish All Men To Be Free. I Wish The Material Prosperity Of The Already Free Which I Feel Sure The Extinction Of Slavery Would Bring.

Don't Worry When You Are Not Recognized, But Strive To Be Worthy Of Recognition.

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

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

I Am Greatly Obliged To You, And To All Who Have Come Forward At The Call Of Their Country.

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

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

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

Money Powers Prey Upon The Nation In Times Of Peace & Conspire Against It In Times Of Adversity.

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.

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.

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

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

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

I See In The Near Future A Crisis Approaching That Unnerves Me And Causes Me To Tremble For The Safety Of My Country.

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.

If You Love Something, Set It Free.

Getting Back Together

If Once You Forfeit The Confidence Of Your Fellow-citizens, You Can Never Regain Their Respect And Esteem.

You Can Have Anything You Want, If You Want It Badly Enough.

It Is A Good Face. I Am Glad This War Is Over At Last.

I Think Slavery Is Wrong, Morally, And Politically. I Desire That It Should Be No Further Spread In These United States, And I Should Not Object If It Should Gradually Terminate In The Whole Union.

We Must Free The Slaves Or Be Ourselves Subdued.

The Land, The Earth God Gave To Man For His Home ... Should Never Be The Possession Of Any Man, Corporation, (or) Society ... Any More Than The Air Or Water.

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.

I Turn, Then, And Look To The American People And To That God Who Has Never Forsaken Them.

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

I Am For Those Means Which Will Give The Greatest Good To The Greatest Number.

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.

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

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.

When The Hour Comes For Dealing With Slavery, I Trust I Will Be Willing To Do My Duty Though It Cost My Life.

It Doesn't Mater If You're A Slow Walker, So Long As You Don't Walk Backwards.

What I Do Say Is, That No Man Is Good Enough To Govern Another Man, Without That Other's Consent. I Say This Is The Leading Principle - The Sheet Anchor Of American Republicanism.

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

If You Have Never Failed You Have Never Lived.

Short Inspirational Life

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

The Will Of God Prevails.

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

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.

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.

Well, I Suppose You Know That Men Will Stand A Good Deal When They Are Flattered.

If You Trust, You Will Be Disappointed Occasionally, But If You Mistrust, You Will Be Miserable All The Time.

I Belive That People Should Fight For What They Believe And Only What They Believe.

We Are Not Enemies, But Friends. We Must Not Be Enemies. Though Passion May Have Strained, It Must Not Break Our Bonds Of Affection. The Mystic Chords Of Memory Will Swell When Again Touched, As Surely They Will Be, By The Better Angels Of Our Nature.

No Organic Law Can Ever Be Framed With A Provision Specifically Applicable To Every Question Which May Occur In Practical Administration. .. No Foresight Can Anticipate Nor Any Document Of Reasonable Length Contain Express Provisions For All Possible Questions.

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.

Its Authors Meant It To Be... A Stumbling Block To Those Who In After Times Might Seek To Turn A Free People Back Into The Hateful Paths Of Despotism. They Knew The Proneness Of Prosperity To Breed Tyrants, And They Meant When Such Should Re-appear In This Fair Land And Commence Their Vocation They Should Find Left For Them At Least One Hard Nut To Crack.

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

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.

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.

I Am Not Concerned That You Have Fallen -- I Am Concerned That You Arise.

The Matter Of Fees Is Important, Far Beyond The Mere Question Of Bread And Butter Involved. Properly Attended To, Fuller Justice Is Done To Both Lawyer And Client.

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.

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

An Allusion Has Been Made To The Homestead Law. I Think It Worthy Of Consideration, And That The Wild Lands Of The Country Should Be Distributed So That Every Man Should Have The Means And Opportunity Of Benefitting His Condition.

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

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

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 The Light I Have. I Must Stand With Anybody That Stands Right - Stand With Him While He Is Right And Part With Him When He Goes Wrong.

If You Wish To Win A Man Over To Your Ideas, First Make Him Your Friend.

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.

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

Care For Him Who Shall Have Borne The Battle

Widows And Orphans

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.

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.

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.

I Did Say, At Chicago, In My Speech There, That I Do Wish To See The Spread Of Slavery Arrested And To See It Placed Where The Public Mind Shall Rest In The Belief That It Is In Course Of Ultimate Extinction.

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.

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

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 Was Born And Have Ever Remaind [sic] In The Most Humble Walks Of Life.

It Has Long Been Recognized That The Problems With Alcohol Relate Not To The Use Of A Bad Thing, But To The Abuse Of A Good Thing.

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

Independent Women

Dignity Of Work

I Am A Moderate Walker, However I Never Stroll Back.

Law Is Nothing Else But The Best Reason Of Wise Men Applied For Ages To The Transactions And Business Of Mankind.

My Father Taught Me To Work, But Not To Love It. I Never Did Like To Work, And I Don't Deny It. I'd Rather Read, Tell Stories, Crack Jokes, Talk, Laugh -- Anything But Work.

He Who Does Something At The Head Of One Regiment, Will Eclipse Him Who Does Nothing At The Head Of A Hundred.

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

Everybody Likes A Compliment.

[i]f The Policy Of The Government, Upon Vital Questions Affecting, The Whole People Is To Be Irrevocably Fixed By Decisions Of The Supreme Court, The Instant They Are Made, In Ordinary Litigation Between Parties In Personal Actions, The People Will Have Ceased, To Be Their Own Rulers, Having, To That Extent, Practically Resigned Their Government, Into The Hands Of That Eminent Tribunal.

My God! My God! What Will The Country Say?

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.

Killing The Dog Does Not Cure The Bite.

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

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.

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