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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.

-Abraham Lincoln

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There May Sometimes Be

Abraham Lincoln

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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.

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We Shall Yet Acknowledge His Wisdom And Our Own Error Therein.

Lamon, That Speech Won't Scour. It Is A Flat Failure And The People Are Disappointed.

As A Nation, We Began By Declaring That 'all Men Are Created Equal.' We Now Practically Read It 'all Men Are Created Equal, Except Negroes.' When The Know-nothings Get Control, It Will Read 'all Men Are Created Equal, Except Negroes, And Foreigners, And Catholics.' When It Comes To This I Should Prefer Emigrating To Some Country Where They Make No Pretense Of Loving Liberty – To Russia, For Instance, Where Despotism Can Be Taken Pure, And Without The Base Alloy Of Hypocrisy.

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

With Malice Towards None; With Charity For All.

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.

I Think I Stand Where That Man Stands.

You Can Always Lie To Others And Hide Your Actions From Them... But You Can Not Fool Yourself

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.

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

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?"

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.

Adhere To Your Purpose And You Will Soon Feel As Well As You Ever Did. On The Contrary, If You Falter, And Give Up, You Will Lose The Power Of Keeping Any Resolution, And Will Regret It All Your Life.

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.

I Am Not In Favor Of Making Voters Or Jurors Of Negroes, Nor Of Qualifying Them To Hold Office.

Public Sentiment Is Everything. With Public Sentiment, Nothing Can Fail. Without It, Nothing Can Succeed.

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

If We Cannot Give Freedom To Every Creature, Let Us Do Nothing That Will Impose Slavery Upon Any Other Creature.

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.

I Shall Always Think Of Myself First And Foremost... As A Hunter.

Now, At The End Of Three Years Struggle The Nation's Condition Is Not What Either Party, Or Any Man Devised, Or Expected. God Alone Can Claim It.

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

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.

Nations Like Individuals Are Subjected To Punishments And Chastisements In This World.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Well, I Wish Some Of You Would Tell Me The Brand Of Whiskey That Grant Drinks. I Would Like To Send A Barrel Of It To My Other Generals.

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

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.

Common Looking People Are The Best In The World: That Is The Reason The Lord Makes So Many Of Them.

I Like To See A Man Proud Of The Place In Which He Lives. I Like To See A Man Live So That His Place Will Be Proud Of Him.

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

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

I Do Not Think Much Of A Man Who Is Not Wiser Today Than He Was Yesterday.

The Greatest Fine Art Of The Future Will Be The Making Of A Comfortable Living From A Small Piece Of Land.

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.

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

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.

The Surest Way To Reveal One's Character Is Not Through Adversity But By Giving Them Power.

The Man Who Stands By And Says Nothing, When The Peril Of His Government Is Discussed, Can Not Be Misunderstood. If Not Hindered, He Is Sure To Help The Enemy.

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

The Master Not Only Governs The Slave Without His Consent, But He Governs Him By A Set Of Rules Altogether Different From Those Which He Prescribes For Himself. Allow All The Governed An Equal Voice In The Government, And That, And That Only, Is Self-government.

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.

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

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

This Nation Under God

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

I Walk Slowly, But Never Backwards.

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

While The People Retain Their Virtue And Vigilance, No Administration, By Any Extreme Of Wickedness Or Folly, Can Very Seriously Injure The Government In The Short Space Of Four Years.

When Arguing With A Fool, Make Sure The Opponent Isn't Doing The Exact Same Thing.

The Available Supply Of Gold And Silver Being Wholly Inadequate To Permit The Issuance Of Coins Of Intrinsic Value Or Paper Currency Convertible Into Coin Of Intrinsic Value Or Paper Currency Convertible Into Coin In The Volume Required To Serve The Needs Of The People, Some Other Basis For The Issue Of Currency Must Be Developed, And Some Means Other Than That Of Convertibility Into Coin Must Be Developed To Prevent Undue Fluctuation In The Value Of Paper Currency Or Any Other Substitute For Money Intrinsic Value That May Come Into Use.

Most Governments Have Been Based, Practically, On The Denial Of Equal Rights Of Menours Began, By Affirming Those Rights. They Said, Some Men Are Too Ignorant, And Vicious, To Share In Government. Possibly So, Said We; And, By Your System, You Would Always Keep Them Ignorant, And Vicious. We Proposed To Give All A Chance; And We Expected The Weak To Grow Stronger, The Ignorant Wiser; And All Better, And Happier Together.

When I Go Hear A Man Speak, I Like To Hear Him Speak Like He's Fighting A Swarm Of Bees.

We Must Believe That He Permits It [this War] For Some Wise Purpose Of His Own, Mysterious And Unknown To Us; And Though With Ourlimited Understandings We May Not Be Able To Comprehend It, Yet We Cannot But Believe, That He Who Made The World Still Governs It.

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.

I Was Born Feb. 12, 1809, In Hardin County, Kentucky. My Parents Were Both Born In Virginia, Of Undistinguished Families--second Families, Perhaps I Should Say. My Mother, Who Died In My Tenth Year, Was Of A Family Of The Name Of Hanks.... My Father ... Removed From Kentucky To ... Indiana, In My Eighth Year.... It Was A Wild Region, With Many Bears And Other Wild Animals Still In The Woods. There I Grew Up.... Of Course When I Came Of Age I Did Not Know Much. Still Somehow, I Could Read, Write, And Cipher ... But That Was All.

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.

Knavery And Flattery Are Blood Relations.

Prosperity Is The Fruit Of Labor. It Begins With Saving Money.

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

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

To Secure To Each Laborer The Whole Product Of His Labor, Or As Nearly As Possible, Is A Worthy Object Of Any Good Government.

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

What Constitutes The Bulwark Of Our Own Liberty And Independence? It Is Not...the Guns Of Our War Steamers, Or The Strength Of Our Gallant And Disciplined Army...our Reliance Is In The Love Of Liberty Which God Has Planted In Our Bosoms...

I Fear Explanations Explanatory Of Things Explained.

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.

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

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

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

If I Could Save The Union Without Freeing Any Slave, I Would Do It.

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.

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.

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.

May The Almighty Grant That The Cause Of Truth, Justice, And Humanity, Shall In No Wise Suffer At My Hands.

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.

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

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.

A Capacity And Taste For Reading Gives Access To Whatever Has Already Been Discovered By Others.

Nearly All Men Can Stand Adversity, But If You Want To Test A Man's Character, Give Him Power.

...i Am Exceedingly Anxious That This Union, The Constitution, And The Liberties Of The People Shall Be Perpetuated In Accordance With The Original Idea For Which That Struggle Was Made, And 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, For Perpetuating The Object Of That Great Struggle.

Your Rights End Where My Nose Begins.

I Hold, That In Contemplation Of Universal Law, And Of The Constitution, The Union Of These States Is Perpetual.

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

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.

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

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

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

As Our Case Is New, So We Must Think Anew, And Act Anew.

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.

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.

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

No Country Can Sustain, In Idleness, More Than A Small Percentage Of Its Numbers. The Great Majority Must Labor At Something Productive.

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.

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.

No Man Is Poor Who Has A Godly Mother.

America Will Never Be Destroyed From The Outside. If We Falter And Lose Our Freedoms, It Will Be Because We Destroyed Ourselves.

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.

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.

I Dared Not Trust The Case On The Presumption That The Court Knows Everything. In Fact, I Argued It On The Presumption That The Court Didn't Know Anything.

Gratefully Accepting The Proffered Honor, [to Inscribe A New Legal Work To Him] I Give The Leave, Begging Only That The Inscription May Be In Modest Terms, Not Representing Me As A Man Of Great Learning, Or A Very Extraordinary One In Any Respect.

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

Congressmen Who Willfully Take Action During Wartime That Damages Morale And Undermine The Military Are Saboteurs And Should Be Arrested, Exiled, Or Hung

Towering Genius...thirsts And Burns For Distinction; And, If Possible, It Will Have It, Whether At The Expense Of Emancipating Slaves Or Enslaving Freeman.

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.

We Know, Southern Men Declare That Their Slaves Are Better Off Than Hired Laborers Amongst Us. How Little They Know, Whereof They Speak! There Is No Permanent Class Of Hired Laborers Amongst Us. Twenty-five Years Ago, I Was A Hired Laborer. The Hired Laborer Of Yesterday, Labors On His Own Account Today; And Will Hire Others To Labor For Him Tomorrow.

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

Sending Armies To Mcclellan Is Like Shoveling Fleas Across A Barnyard, Not Half Of Them Get There.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

Your Good Mother Tells Me You Are Feeling Very Badly In Your New Situation. Allow Me To Assure You It Is A Perfect Certainty That You Will, Very Soon, Feel Better - Quite Happy - If You Only Stick To The Resolution You Have Taken To Procure A Military Education.... On The Contrary, If You Falter, And Give Up, You Will Lose The Power Of Keeping Any Resolution, And Will Regret It All Your Life.

The Foregoing History May Not Be Precisely Accurate In Every Particular; But I Am Sure It Is Sufficiently So, For All The Uses I Shall Attempt To Make Of It, And In It, We Have Before Us, The Chief Material Enabling Us To Correctly Judge Whether The Repeal Of The Missouri Compromise Is Right Or Wrong.

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.

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.

It May Be Affirmed, Without Extravagance, That The Free Institutions We Enjoy, Have Developed The Powers, And Improved The Condition, Of Our Whole People, Beyond Any Example In The World.

The Mystic Chords Of Memory, Stretching From Every Battle-field, And Patriot Grave, To Every Living Heart And Hearth-stone, All Over This Broad Land, Will Yet Swell The Chorus Of The Union, When Again Touched, As Surely They Will Be, By The Better Angels Of Our Nature. --as Quoted In The River Of Winged Dreams

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.

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

You May Burn My Body To Ashes, And Scatter Them To The Winds Of Heaven; You May Drag My Soul Down To The Regions Of Darkness And Despair To Be Tormented Forever; But You Will Never Get Me To Support A Measure Which I Believe To Be Wrong, Although By Doing So I May Accomplish That Which I Believe To Be Right.

Seriously, I Do Not Think I Am Fit For The Presidency.

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

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.

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.

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

We Should Be Too Big To Take Offense And Too Noble To Give It.

I Confess I Hate To See The Poor Creatures Hunted Down But I Bite My Lip And Keep Quiet.

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

Never Change Horses In Midstream.

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

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

What Kills A Skunk Is The Publicity It Gives Itself.

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

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

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.

It Is Much Easier To Ride A Horse In The Direction It Is Going.

As A Nation We Began By Declaring That All Me Are Created Equal. We Now Practically Read It, All Men Are Created Equal Except Negroes.

Every Man Is Proud Of What He Does Well; And No Man Is Proud Of What He Does Not Do Well. With The Former, His Heart Is In His Work; And He Will Do Twice As Much Of It With Less Fatigue. The Latter Performs A Little Imperfectly, Looks At It In Disgust, Turns From It, And Imagines Himself Exceedingly Tired. The Little He Has Done, Comes To Nothing, For Want Of Finishing.

I'm A Slow Walker, But I Never Walk Back.

The President Is The Cube Of Ice One Places In The Pot Of A Houseplant, Providing A Steady Amount Of Nourishment Over The Course Of A Hot Day. A Good Description Of The Job And Also A Fantastic Bit Of Practical Household Advice.

If Ever This Free People, If This Government Itself Is Ever Utterly Demoralized, It Will Come From This Incessant Human Wriggle And Struggle For Office, Which Is But A Way To Live Without Work.

In Law It Is Good Policy To Never Plead What You Need Not, Lest You Oblige Yourself To Prove What You Can Not.

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

[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.

While I Have Often Said That All Men Out To Be Free, Yet I Would Allow Those Colored Persons To Be Slaves Who Want To Be; And Next To Them Those White Persons Who Argue In Favor Of Making Other People Slaves. I Am In Favor Of Giving An Opportunity To Such White Men To Try It On For Themselves.

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

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.

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

All The Armies Of Europe, Asia And Africa Combined, With All The Treasure Of The Earth (our Own Excepted) In Their Military Chest; With A Buonaparte For A Commander, Could Not By Force, Take A Drink From The Ohio, Or Make A Track On The Blue Ridge, In A Trial Of A Thousand Years.

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

Congress And The President

Anybody Will Do For You, But Not For Me.

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

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.

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

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

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

It Is Difficult To Make A Man Miserable While He Feels Worthy Of Himself And Claims Kindred To The Great God Who Made Him.

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

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

In Times Like The Present, Men Should Utter Nothing For Which They Would Not Willingly Be Responsible Through Time And Eternity.

I Affect No Contempt For The High Eminence He [senator Stephen Douglas] Has Reached. So Reached, That The Oppressed Of My Species,might Have Shared With Me In The Elevation, I Would Rather Stand On That Eminence, Than Wear The Richest Crown That Ever Pressed A Monarch's Brow.

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

Men Are Not Flattered By Being Shown That There Has Been A Difference Of Purpose Between The Almighty And Them.

You Think Slavery Is Right And Ought To Be Extended; While We Think It Is Wrong And Ought To Be Restricted. That I Suppose Is The Rub. It Certainly Is The Only Substantial Difference Between Us.

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.

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

Keeping Promises

I Am Very Glad Indeed To See You To-night, And Yet I Will Not Say I Thank You For This Call, But I Do Most Sincerely Thank Almighty God For The Occasion On Which You Have Called.

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.

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

Love Is The Chain Whereby To Bind A Child To Its Parents.

It Has Been My Experience That Folks Who Have No Vices Have Very Few Virtues.

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.

Don't Judge A Man By The Size Of His Ego Or His Heart, But On The Epicness Of His Beard And The Beautiful Woman On His Arm

A Man Watches His Pear-tree Day After Day, Impatient For The Ripening Of The Fruit. Let Him Attempt To Force The Process, And He May Spoil Both Fruit And Tree. But Let Him Patiently Wait, And The Ripe Pear At Length Falls Into His Lap.

You Know You've Reached Middle Age When All You Exercise Is Caution

Tangible Language, Which Often Tells More Falsehoods Than Truths.

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

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

Almost Every Thing, Especially Of Governmental Policy, Is An Inseparable Compound Of The Two [good And Evil].

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

The Fiery Trials Through Which We Pass Will Light Us Down In Honor Or Dishonor To The Latest Generation.

Congress And The President

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

These Capitalists Generally Act Harmoniously And In Concert, To Fleece The People.

When Any Church Will Inscribe Over Its Altar, As Its Sole Qualification For Membership, The Savior's Condensed Statement Of The Substance Of Both Law And Gospel, 'thou Shalt Love The Lord Thy God With All Thy Heart, And With All Thy Soul And Thy Neighbor As Thyself' That Church Will I Join With All My Heart And All My Soul.

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.

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

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.

Familiarize Yourself With The Chains Of Bondage And You Prepare Your Own Limbs To Wear Them.

The Working Men Are The Basis Of All Governments, For The Plain Reason That They Are The Most Numerous.

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.

The Dogmas Of The Quiet Past Are Inadequate To The Stormy Present. The Occasion Is Piled High With Difficulty, And We Must Rise With The Occasion. As Our Case Is New, So We Must Think Anew And Act Anew.

I Have Neither Time Nor Disposition To Enter Into Discussion With The Friend, And End This Occasion By Suggesting For Her Consideration The Question Whether, If It Be True That The Lord Has Appointed Me To Do The Work She Has Indicated, It Is Not Probable That He Would Have Communicated Knowledge Of The Fact To Me As Well As To Her.

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.

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.

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