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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.

-Abraham Lincoln

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When Any Church Will

Abraham Lincoln

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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.

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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.

I Was Losing Interest In Politics, When The Repeal Of The Missouri Compromise Aroused Me Again. What I Have Done Since Then Is Pretty Well Known.

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

We Were Proclaiming Ourselves Political Hypocrites Before The World, By Thus Fostering Human Slavery And Proclaiming Ourselves, At The Same Time, The Sole Friends Of Human Freedom.

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 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 Must Remember That The People Of All The States Are Entitled To All The Privileges And Immunities Of The Citizen Of The Several States. We Should Bear This In Mind, And Act In Such A Way As To Say Nothing Insulting Or Irritating. I Would Inculcate This Idea, So That We May Not, Like Pharisees, Set Ourselves Up To Be Better Than Other People.

I Have No Wealthy Or Popular Relations To Recommend Me.

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.

The Privilege Of Creating And Issuing Money Is Not Only The Supreme Prerogative Of Government, But It Is The Government's Greatest Creative Opportunity.

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

If We Exchange One Dollar, We Both Have One Dollar Each. But If We Exchange One Good Thought, We Both Have Two Good Thoughts

Your Rights End Where My Nose Begins.

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

I Believe The Bible Is The Best Gift God Has Ever Given To Man. All The Good From The Savior Of The World Is Communicated To Us Through This Book.

If You Once Forfeit The Confidence Of Your Fellow Citizens, You Can Never Regain Their Respect And Esteem. It Is True That You May Fool All Of The People Some Of The Time; You Can Even Fool Some Of The People All Of The Time; But You Can't Fool All Of The People All Of The Time. -speech At Clinton, Illinois, September 8, 1854.

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

I Will Say, Then, That I Am Not, Nor Ever Have Been, In Favor Of Bringing About In Any Way The Social And Political Equality Of The White And Black Races: That I Am Not, Nor Ever Have Been, In Favor Of Making Voters Or Jurors Of Negroes, Nor Of Qualifying Them To Hold Office, Nor To Intermarry With White People.

Always Remember: Life Is For Enjoying.

Inspirational Life

I Am Struggling To Maintain The Government, Not To Overthrow It. I Am Struggling Especially To Prevent Others From Overthrowing It.

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

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

When I Am Getting Ready To Reason With A Man, I Spend One-third Of My Time Thinking About Myself And What I Am Going To Say And Two-thirds About Him And What He Is Going To Say.

Cling To Liberty And Right; Battle Fro Them; Leed For Them; Die For Them, If Need Be; And Have Confidence In God.

Never Let Your Correspondence Fall Behind.

Be Excellent And Party On Dudes.

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

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.

I Take It That It Is Best For All To Leave Each Man Free To Acquire Property As Fast As He Can. Some Will Get Wealthy. I Dont Believe In A Law To Prevent A Man From Getting Rich; It Would Do More Harm Than Good.

The Ballot Is Stronger Than The Bullet.

Democracies Have

The Unpleasant Events You Are Passing From Will Not Have Been Profitless To You.

A Long Visit To A Friend Is Often A Great Bore. Never Make People Twice Glad.

Inspirational Life

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

The Enthusiastic Uprising Of The People In Our Cause, Is Our Great Reliance; And We Can Not Safely Give It Any Check, Even Thoughit Overflows, And Runs In Channels Not Laid Down In Any Chart.

The Struggle Of Today, Is Not Altogether For Today - It Is For A Vast Future Also. With A Reliance On Providence, All The More Firm And Earnest, Let Us Proceed In The Great Task Which Events Have Devolved Upon Us.

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.

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.

We Better Know There Is A Fire Whence We See Much Smoke Rising Than We Could Know It By One Or Two Witnesses Swearing To It. The Witnesses May Commit Perjury, But The Smoke Cannot.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

I Am A Patient Man--always Willing To Forgive On The Christian Terms Of Repentance, And Also To Give Ample Time For Repentance. Still, I Must Save This Government, If Possible. What I Cannot Do, Of Course I Will Not Do, But It May As Well Be Understood, Once For All, That I Shall Not Surrender This Game Leaving Any Available Card Unplayed.

Money Possesses No Value To The State Other Than That Given To It By Circulation.

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

A New Book Is Like A Friend That I Have Yet To Meet

The Constitution Is Not A Suicide Pact.

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.

I Am Always For The Man Who Wishes To Work.

Must I Shoot A Simple-minded Soldier Boy Who Deserts, While I Must Not Touch A Hair Of The Wily Agitator Who Induces Him To Desert? I Think That In Such A Cse To Silence The Agitator And Save The Boy Is Not Only Constitutional But Withal A Great Mercy.

This Nation Under God

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.

All Creation Is A Mine, And Every Man A Miner. The Whole Earth, And All Within It, Upon It, And Round About It, Including Himself ... Are The Infinitely Various "leads" From Which, Man, From The First, Was To Dig Out His Destiny.

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

I Laugh Because I Must Not Cry, That Is All, That Is All.

The Evacuation Of Petersburg And Richmond, And The Surrender Of The Principal Insurgent Army, Give Hope Of A Righteous And Speedy Peace Whose Joyous Expression Can Not Be Restrained. In The Midst Of This, However, He, From Whom All Blessings Flow, Must Not Be Forgotten. A Call For A National Thanksgiving Is Being Prepared, And Will Be Duly Promulgated.

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

I Believe, If We Take Habitual Drunkards As A Class, Their Heads And Their Hearts Will Bear An Advantageous Comparison With Those Of Any Other Class. There Seems Ever To Have Been A Proneness In The Brilliant And Warm-blooded To Fall Into This Vice.

There Is An Important Sense In Which Government Is Distinctive From Administration. One Is Perpetual, The Other Is Temporary And Changeable. A Man May Be Loyal To His Government And Yet Oppose The Particular Principles And Methods Of Administration.

His Argument Is As Thin As The Homeopathic Soup That Was Made By Oiling The Shadow Of A Pigeon That Had Been Starved To Death.

I Go For All Sharing The Privileges Of The Government Who Assist In Bearing Its Burdens.

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

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.

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

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.

If You Intend To Go To Work There Is No Better Place Than Right Where You Are; If You Do Not Intend To Go To Work, You Can Not Get Along Anywhere.

Let Not Him Who Is Houseless Pull Down The House Of Another, But Let Him Work Diligently And Build One For Himself, Thus By Example Assuring That His Own Shall Be Safe From Violence When Built.

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

In Any Future Great National Trial, Compared With The Men Of This, We Shall Have As Weak, And As Strong; As Silly And As Wise; Asbad And Good.

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

One Is A Majority If He Is Right.

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.

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.'

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

I Am A Firm Believer In The People. If Given The Truth, They Can Be Depended Upon To Meet Any National Crisis. The Great Point Is To Bring Them The Real Facts.

As A Peacemaker The Lawyer Has Superior Opportunity Of Being A Good Man.

Violence Begins Where Knowledge Ends.

I Go For All Sharing The Privileges Of The Government Who Assist In Bearing Its Burdens. Consequently I Go For Admitting All Whites To The Right Of Suffrage Who Pay Taxes Or Bear Arms, By No Means Excluding Females.

If You Would Win A Man To Your Cause, First Convince Him That You Are His Sincere Friend.

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.

We Have Been Preserved, These Many Years, In Peace And Prosperity. We Have Grown In Numbers, Wealth And Power, As No Other Nation Has Ever Grown. But We Have Forgotten God. We Have Forgotten The Gracious Hand Which Preserved Us In Peace, And Multiplied And Enriched And Strengthened Us; And We Have Vainly Imagined, In The Deceitfulness Of Our Hearts, That All These Blessings Were Produced By Some Superior Wisdom And Virtue Of Our Own. Intoxicated With Unbroken Success, We Have Become Too Self Sufficient To Feel The Necessity Of Redeeming And Preserving Grace, Too Proud To Pray To The God That Made Us!

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.

The Demon Of Intemperance Ever Seems To Have Delighted In Sucking The Blood Of Genius And Of Generosity.

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

In This Sad World Of Ours, Sorrow Comes To All, And It Comes With Bitter Agony. Perfect Relief Is Not Possible, Except With The Passing Of Time.

So Plain That No One, High Or Low, Ever Does Mistake It, Except In A Plainly Selfish Way; For Although Volume Upon Volume Is Written To Prove Slavery A Very Good Thing, We Never Hear Of The Man Who Wishes To Take The Good Of It, By Being A Slave Himself.

Whatever Spiteful Fools May Say, Each Jealous Ranting Yelper, No Woman Ever Went Astray, Without A Man To Help Her

What Kills A Skunk Is The Publicity It Gives Itself.

Avoid Popularity If You Would Have Peace.

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

We Trust, Sir, That God Is On Our Side. It Is More Important To Know That We Are On God's Side.

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.

The World Will Little Note, Nor Long Remember What We Say Here, But It Can Never Forget What They Did Here. It Is For Us The Living, Rather, To Be Dedicated Here To The Unfinished Work Which They Who Fought Here So Nobly Advanced.

Unfinished Work

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.

Relying, As I Do, Upon The Almighty Power, And Encouraged As I Am By These Resolutions Which You Have Just Read, With The Support Which I Receive From Christian Men, I Shall Not Hesitate To Use All The Means At My Control To Secure The Termination Of This Rebellion, And Will Hope For Success.

In Regards To This Great Book [the Bible], I Have But To Say It Is The Best Gift God Has Given To Man. All The Good The Savior Gave To The World Was Communicated Through This Book. But For It We Could Not Know Right From Wrong. All Things Most Desirable For Man's Welfare, Here And Hereafter, Are Found Portrayed In It.

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

I Have Two Great Enemies, The Southern Army In Front Of Me And The Bankers In The Rear. Of The Two, The One At My Rear Is My Greatest Foe.

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

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.

The Government Should Create, Issue, And Circulate All The Currency And Credits Needed To Satisfy The Spending Power Of The Government And The Buying Power Of Consumers. By The Adoption Of These Principles, The Taxpayers Will Be Saved Immense Sums Of Interest. Money Will Cease To Be Master And Become The Servant Of Humanity.

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.

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.

The President To-night Has A Dream: - He Was In A Party Of Plain People, And, As It Became Known Who He Was, They Began To Comment On His Appearance. One Of Them Said: - "he Is A Very Common-looking Man". The President Replied: - "the Lord Prefers Common-looking People. That Is The Reason He Makes So Many Of Them".

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.

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

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.

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

But For That Book, We Could Not Know Right From Wrong.

I Do But Quote From One Of Those Speeches When I Declare That "i Have No Purpose, Directly Or Indirectly, To Interfere With The Institution Of Slavery In The States Where It Exists. I Believe I Have No Lawful Right To Do So, And I Have No Inclination To Do So."

Whatever уоu Are, Bе а Good One.

I Cannot Bring Myself To Believe That Any Human Being Lives Who Would Do Me Any Harm.

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

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

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

The People Know Their Rights, And They Are Never Slow To Assert And Maintain Them, When They Are Invaded.

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

My Wife Is As Handsome As When She Was A Girl, And I...fell In Love With Her; And What Is More, I Have Never Fallen Out.

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.

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

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

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 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.

I Have Always Wanted To Deal With Everyone I Meet Candidly And Honestly. If I Have Made Any Assertion Not Warranted By Facts, And It Is Pointed Out To Me, I Will Withdraw It Cheerfully.

We Shall Meanly Lose Or Nobly Save The Last Hope Of Earth.

Tis Better People Think You A Fool, Then Open Your Mouth And Erase All Doubt.

Nothing Valuable Can Be Lost By Taking Time.

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.

Killing The Dog Does Not Cure The Bite.

All I Have Learned, I Learned From Books.

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

I Am In Favor Of Animal Rights As Well As Human Rights. That Is The Way Of A Whole Human Being.

It Is Easiest To "be All Things To All Men," But It Is Not Honest. Self-respect Must Be Sacrificed Every Hour In The Day.

Hours In The Day

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

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

That Our Government Should Have Been Maintained In Its Original Form From Its Establishment Until Now, Is Not Much To Be Wondered At. It Had Many Props To Support It Through That Period, Which Now Are Decayed, And Crumbled Away. Through That Period, It Was Felt By All, To Be An Undecided Experiment; Now, It Is Understood To Be A Successful One.

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.

That Some Should Be Rich, Shows That Others May Become Rich, And, Hence, Is Just Encouragement To Industry And Enterprise.

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

If I Had My Way, This War Would Never Have Been Commenced. If I Had Been Allowed My Way This War Would Have Been Ended Before This.

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

If You Are Resolutely Determined To Make A Lawyer Of Yourself, The Thing Is More Than Half Done Already. It Is But A Small Matter Whether You Read With Anyone Or Not. I Did Not Read With Anyone. Get The Books, And Read And Study Them Till You Understand Them In Their Principal Features; And That Is The Main Thing. It Is Of No Consequence To Be In A Large Town While You Are Reading. I Read At New Salem, Which Never Had Three Hundred People Living In It. The Books, And Your Capacity For Understanding Them, Are Just The Same In All Places.

Shall We Stop This Bleeding?

No Man Has A Good Enough Memory To Be A Successful Liar.

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

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.

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

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

I See In The Near Future A Crisis Approaching That Unnerves Me And Causes Me To Tremble For The Safety Of My Country... Corporations Have Been Enthroned And An Era Of Corruption In High Places Will Follow, And The Money Power Of The Country Will Endeavor To Prolong Its Reign By Working Upon The Prejudices Of The People Until All Wealth Is Aggregated In A Few Hands And The Republic Is Destroyed.

Any Society That Takes Away From Those Most Capable And Gives To The Least Will Perish.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

The Leading Rule For A Man Of Every Calling Is Diligence; Never Put Off Until Tomorrow What You Can Do Today.

Democracy Is "government Of, By And For The People".

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.

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

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

With Firmness In The Right, As God Gives Us To See The Right.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

The Case Of Andrews Is Really A Very Bad One, As Appears By The Record Already Before Me. Yet Before Receiving This I Had Orderedhis Punishment Commuted To Imprisonmentand Had So Telegraphed. I Did This, Not On Any Merit In The Case, But Because I Am Trying To Evade The Butchering Business Lately.

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.

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.

It Has Been Said That One Bad General Is Better Than Two Good Ones, And The Saying Is True If Taken To Mean No More Than That An Army Is Better Directed By A Single Mind, Though Inferior, Than By Two Superior Ones At Variance And Cross-purposes With Each Other. And The Same Is True In All Joint Operations Wherein Those Engaged Can Have None But A Common End In View And Can Differ Only As To The Choice Of Means. In A Storm At Sea No One On Board Can Wish The Ship To Sink, And Yet Not Unfrequently All Go Down Together Because Too Many Will Direct And No Single Mind Can Be Allowed To Control.

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 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.

I Find Quite As Much Material For A Lecture In Those Points Wherein I Have Failed, As In Those Wherein I Have Been Moderately Successful.

I Will, To The Best Of My Ability, Preserve, Protect And Defend The Constitution Of The United States. It Is Not The Constitution As I Would Like To Have It, But As It Is, That Is To Be Defended. The Constitution Will Not Be Preserved & Defended Until It Is Enforced & Obeyed In Every Part Of Every One Of The United States. It Must Be So Respected, Obeyed, Enforced And Defended, And Let The Grass Grow Where It May.

The People When Rightly And Fully Trusted Will Return The Trust.

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.

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.

The Legitimate Object Of Government Is To Do For A Community Of People Whatever They Need To Have Done, But Can Not Do At All, Or Can Not So Well Do, For Themselves – In Their Separate, And Individual Capacities.

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.

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

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Important Principles May, And Must, Be Inflexible.

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.

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.

No Man Is Poor Who Has A Godly Mother.

I Believe It Is An Established Maxim In Morals That He Who Makes An Assertion Without Knowing Whether It Is True Or False, Is Guilty Of Falsehood; And The Accidental Truth Of The Assertion, Does Not Justify Or Excuse Him.

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.

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

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

We Have, As All Will Agree, A Free Government, Where Every Man Has A Right To Be Equal With Every Other Man. In This Great Struggle, This Form Of Government And Every Form Of Human Right Is Endangered If Our Enemies Succeed.

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

...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.

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