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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.

-Abraham Lincoln

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While I Have Often

Abraham Lincoln

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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.

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Our Adversaries [ The Confederate States Of America ] Have Adopted Some Declarations Of Independence In Which, Unlike The Good Old One Penned By Jefferson, They Omit The Words "all Men Are Created Equal." Why? They Have Adopted A Temporary National Constitution, In The Preamble Of Which, Unlike Our Good Old One, Signed By Washington, They Omit "we, The People," And Substitute "we, The Deputies Of The Sovereign And Independent States." Why? Why This Deliberate Pressing Out Of View, The Rights Of Men, And The Authority Of The People?

With Malice Towards None; With Charity For All.

Certainly There Is No Contending Against The Will Of God; But Still There Is Some Difficulty In Ascertaining, And Applying It, To Particular Cases.

My Dear Mcclellan, If You Don't Want To Use The Army I Should Like To Borrow It For A While. Yours Respectfully.

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

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

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

Believing Everybody Is Dangerous, But Believing Nobody Is More Dangerous.

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

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

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

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.

Women Are The Only People I Am Afraid Of Who I Never Thought Would Hurt Me

Persuasion, Kind, Unassuming Persuasion, Should Be Adopted To Influence The Conduct Of Men. The Opposite Course Would Be A Reversal Of Human Nature, Which Is God's Decree And Can Never Be Reversed.

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.

In A Certain Sense, And To A Certain Extent, He [the President] Is The Representative Of The People. He Is Elected By Them, As Well As Congress Is. But Can He, In The Nature [of] Things, Know The Wants Of The People, As Well As Three Hundred Other Men, Coming From All The Various Localities Of The Nation? If So, Where Is The Propriety Of Having A Congress?

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

As We Keep Or Break The Sabbath Day We Nobly Save Or Meanly Lose The Last Best Hope By Which Man Rises.

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.

When I Hear A Man Preach, I Like To See Him Act As If He Were Fighting Bees.

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

This Country, With Its Institutions, Belongs To The People Who Inhabit It.

Constitution Of The United States

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.

If At Any Time All Labour Should Cease, And All Existing Provisions Be Equally Divided Among The People, At The End Of A Single Year There Could Scarcely Be One Human Being Left Alive--all Would Have Perished By Want Of Subsistence.

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.

I Am An Optimist Because I Don't See The Point In Being Anything Else.

I Can't Spare This Man, He Fights!

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

My Father, At The Death Of His Father, Was But Six Years Of Age; And He Grew Up, Literally Without Education.

[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.

If Ever I Feel The Soul Within Me Elevate And Expand To Those Dimensions, Not Wholly Unworthy Of Its Almighty Architect, It Is When I Contemplate The Cause Of My Country, Deserted By All The World Beside, And I Standing Up Boldly, Alone, Hurling Defiance At Her Victorious Oppressors.

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

We Cannot But Believe That He Who Made The World Still Governs It.

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

The Only Person Who Is A Worse Liar Than A Faith Healer Is His Patient.

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.

I Destroy My Enemy If I Make Him My Friend.

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

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

I Am Very Little Inclined On Any Occasion To Say Anything Unless I Hope To Produce Some Good By It.

Freedom Is The Natural Condition Of The Human Race, In Which The Almighty Intended Men To Live. Those Who Fight The Purpose Of The Almighty Will Not Succeed. They Always Have Been, They Always Will Be Beaten.

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

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

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.

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.

The Sense Of Obligation To Continue Is Present In All Of Us. A Duty To Strive Is The Duty Of Us All. I Felt A Call To That Duty.

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.

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

Any People Anywhere, Being Inclined And Having The Power, Have The Right To Rise Up, And Shake Off The Existing Government, And Form A New One That Suits Them Better. This Is A Most Valuable - A Most Sacred Right - A Right, Which We Hope And Believe, Is To Liberate The World.

Be Not Deceived. Revolutions Do Not Go Backward.

Rules For Radicals

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.

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.

Get Books, Sit Yourself Down Anywhere, And Go To Reading Them Yourself.

Have I Not Destroyed My Enemy When I Have Made Him Into My Friend?

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.

I Have Never Studied The Art Of Paying Compliments To Women; But I Must Say That If All That Has Been Said By Orators And Poets Since The Creation Of The World In Praise Of Women Were Applied To The Women Of America, It Would Not Do Them Justice For Their Conduct During This War.

If The Good People In Their Wisdom Shall See Fit To Keep Me In The Background, I Have Been Too Familiar With Disappointments To Bevery Much Chagrined.

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.

Reduce The Supply Of Black Labor By Colonizing The Black Laborer Out Of The Country, And By Precisely So Much You Increase The Demand For And Wages Of White Labor.

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.

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.

If You Wish To Be A Lawyer, Attach No Consequence To The Place You Are In, Or The Person You Are With; But Get Books, Sit Down Anywhere, And Go To Reading For Yourself. That Will Make A Lawyer Of You Quicker Than Any Other Way.

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

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

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

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

Nothing Will Divert Me From My Purpose.

Every One Desires To Live Long, But No One Would Be Old.

I Can Make More Generals, But Horses Cost Money.

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

My Friends I Now Leave, Not Knowing When, Or Whether Ever, I May Return, With A Task Before Me Greater Than That Which Rested Upon Washington. Without The Assistance Of That Divine Being, Who Ever Attended Him, I Cannot Succeed. With That Assistance, I Cannot Fail.

You Cannot Have The Right To Do What Is Wrong!

Education Does Not Mean Teaching People What They Do Not Know. It Means Teaching Them To Behave As They Do Not Behave.

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.

In The Early Days Of The World, The Almighty Said To The First Of Our Race "in The Sweat Of Thy Face Shalt Thou Eat Bread"; And Since Then, If We Except The Light And The Air Of Heaven, No Good Thing Has Been, Or Can Be Enjoyed By Us, Without Having First Cost Labour.

The Worst Thing You Can Do For Those You Love Is The Things They Could And Should Do Themselves.

All The Armies Of Europe Combined Could Not By Force Make A Track Upon The Blue Ridge, Or Take A Drink From The Ohio. If We Are To Be Destroyed, We Must Do It Ourselves.

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

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

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 Understand That It Is A Maxim Of Law, That A Poor Plea May Be A Good Plea To A Bad Declaration.

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

Accounts Of Outrages Committed By Mobs Form The Every-day News Of The Times. They Have Pervaded The Country From New England To Louisiana, They Are Neither Peculiar To The Eternal Snows Of The Former Nor The Burning Suns Of The Latter; They Are Not The Creature Of Climate, Neither Are They Confined To The Slaveholding Or The Non-slaveholding States. Alike They Spring Up Among The Pleasure-hunting Masters Of Southern Slaves, And The Order-loving Citizens Of The Land Of Steady Habits. Whatever Then Their Cause May Be, It Is Common To The Whole Country.

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

The Solemn Pride That Must Be Yours To Have Laid So Costly A Sacrifice Upon The Altar Of Freedom.

Slavery Is Founded On The Selfishness Of Man's Nature - Opposition To It On His Love Of Justice. These Principles Are In Eternal Antagonism; And When Brought Into Collision So Fiercely As Slavery Extension Brings Them, Shocks And Throes And Convulsions Must Ceaselessly Follow.

I Know There Is A God, And That He Hates Injustice And Slavery. I See The Storm Coming, And I Know That His Hand Is In It. If He Has A Place And Work For Me - And I Think He Has - I Believe I Am Ready.

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

Capital Has Its Rights, Which Are As Worthy Of Protection As Any Other Right.

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

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.'

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

Congress And The President

Do You Think We Choose The Times Into Which We Are Born? Or Do We Fit The Times We Are Born Into?

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

There' S Nothing Good In War. Except Its Ending.

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.

The Better Part Of One's Life Consists Of His Friendships.

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

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

The Time Comes Upon Every Public Man When It Is Best For Him To Keep His Lips Closed.

Doubtless You Begin To Understand How Disagreeable It Is To Me To Do A Thing Arbitrarily, When It Is Unsatisfactory To Others Associated With Me.

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

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

I Never Trusted A Man Who Never Smoked Or Drank.

Teach Hope To All, Despair To None.

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

Emancipation Proclamation

In Those Days, Our Declaration Of Independence Was Held Sacred By All, And Thought To Include All; But Now, To Aid In The Making The Bondage Of The Negro Universal And Eternal, It Is Assailed, And Sneered At, And Construed, And Hawked At, And Torn, Till, If Its Framers Could Rise From Their Graves, They Could Not At All Recognize It.

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.

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

The Bible Says Somewhere That We Are Desperately Selfish. I Think We Would Have Discovered That Fact Without The Bible.

If Slavery Is Not Wrong, Nothing Is Wrong.

I Hope It Will Not Be Irreverent In Me To Say, That If It Be Probable That God Would Reveal His Will To Others, On A Point So Connected With My Duty, It Might Be Supposed He Would Reveal It Directly To Me

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

Prohibition... Goes Beyond The Bounds Of Reason In That It Attempts To Control A Man's Appetite By Legislation And Makes A Crime Out Of Things That Are Not Crimes... A Prohibition Law Strikes A Blow At The Very Principles Upon Which Our Government Was Founded.

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.

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

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

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?

...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.

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.

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

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

Our Strife Pertains To Ourselves-to The Passing Generations Of Men-and It Can Without Convulsion Be Hushed Forever With The Passing Of One Generation.

The Will Of God Prevails.

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

Such A Man The Times Have Demanded, And Such, In The Providence Of God Was Given Us. But He Is Gone. Let Us Strive To Deserve, As Far As Mortals May, The Continued Care Of Divine Providence, Trusting That, In Future National Emergencies, He Will Not Fail To Provide Us The Instruments Of Safety And Security.

Your Rights End Where My Nose Begins.

That Some Achieve Great Success, Is Proof To All That Others Can Achieve It As Well.

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.

If The Union Of These States, And The Liberties Of This People, Shall Be Lost, It Is But Little To Any One Man Of Fifty-two Yearsof Age, But A Great Deal To The Thirty Millions Of People Who Inhabit These United States, And To Their Posterity In All Coming Time.

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

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.

Destroy Your Enemy By Making Him Your Friend.

Powerful Life Changing

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.

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.

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.

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

My Dream Is Of A Place And A Time Where America Will Once Again Be Seen As The Last Best Hope Of Earth.

By The 'mud-sill' Theory It Is Assumed That Labor And Education Are Incompatible; And Any Practical Combination Of Them Impossible. According To That Theory, A Blind Horse Upon A Tread-mill, Is A Perfect Illustration Of What A Laborer Should Be -- All The Better For Being Blind, That He Could Not Tread Out Of Place, Or Kick Understandingly. According To That Theory, The Education Of Laborers, Is Not Only Useless, But Pernicious, And Dangerous. In Fact, It Is, In Some Sort, Deemed A Misfortune That Laborers Should Have Heads At All.

I Agree With You, Mr. Chairman, That The Working Men Are The Basis Of All Governments, For The Plain Reason That They Are The More Numerous, And As You Added That Those Were The Sentiments Of The Gentlemen Present, Representing Not Only The Working Class, But Citizens Of Other Callings Than Those Of The Mechanic, I Am Happy To Concur With You In These Sentiments, Not Only Of The Native Born Citizens, But Also Of The Germans And Foreigners From Other Countries.

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

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.

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.

Our Political Problem Now Is, "can We As A Nation Continue Together Permanently - Forever - Half Slave And Half Free?"

That On The First Day Of January, In The Year Of Our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred Ans Sixty-three, All Persons Held As Slaves Within Any State Or Designated Part Of A State, The People Whereof Shall Then Be In Rebellion Against The United States, Shall Be Then, Thence Forward, And Forever Free.

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.

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

Keeping Promises

He Has Got The Slows, Mr. Blair.

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.

Nevertheless, Amid The Greatest Difficulties Of My Administration, When I Could Not See Any Other Resort, I Would Place My Whole Reliance On God, Knowing That All Would Go Well, And That He Would Decide For The Right.

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.

The Eyes Of That Species Of Extinct Giant, Whose Bones Fill The Mounds Of America, Have Gazed On Niagara As Our Eyes Do Now.

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

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.

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.

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

The Struggle Of Today Is Not Altogether For Today - It Is For A Vast Future Also.

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

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.

Some Day I Shall Be President.

If You Are Resolutely Determined To Make A Lawyer Of Yourself, The Thing Is More Than Half Done Already.

You Can Not Fail In Any Laudable Object, Unless You Allow Your Mind To Be Improperly Directed.

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

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 Long As The Almighty Permitted Intelligent Men, Created In His Image And Likeness, To Fight In Public And Kill Each Other While The World Looks On Approvingly, It's Not For Me To Deprive The Chickens Of The Same Privilege.

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

Every Blade Of Grass Is A Study; And To Produce Two, Where There Was But One, Is Both A Profit And A Pleasure.

If There Is Anything That Links The Human To The Divine, It Is The Courage To Stand By A Principle When Everybody Else Rejects It.

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

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

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

And You Are Entirely Free From Head-ache? That Is Good -- Good -- Considering It Is The First Spring You Have Been Free From It Since We Were Acquainted. I Am Afraid You Will Get So Well, And Fat, And Young, As To Be Wanting To Marry Again.

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.

By Adoption Of These Principles, The Long-felt Want For A Uniform Medium Will Be Satisfied. The Taxpayers Will Be Saved Immense Sums Of Interest, Discounts, And Exchanges. The Financing Of All Public Enterprises, The Maintenance Of Stable Government And Ordered Progress, And The Conduct Of The Treasury Will Become Matters Of Practical Administration. The People Can And Will Be Furnished With A Currency As Safe As Their Own Government.

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

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

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

The Autocrat Of All The Russias Will Resign His Crown, And Proclaim His Subjects Free Republicans Sooner Than Will Our American Masters Voluntarily Give Up Their Slaves.

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

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

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

Most People Are As Happy As They Want To Be.

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

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

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

We, On Our Side, Are Praying To Him To Give Us Victory, Because We Believe We Are Right; But Those On The Other Side Pray To Him, Look For Victory, Believing They Are Right. What Must He Think Of Us?

I Will Do What I Think Is Right And When I Discover That It Is Wrong, I Will Change It.

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

Woe Unto The World Because Of Offenses; For It Must Needs Be That Offenses Come, But Woe To That Man By Whom The Offense Cometh.

Our Republican System Was Meant For A Homogeneous People. As Long As Blacks Continue To Live With The Whites They Constitute A Threat To The National Life. Family Life May Also Collapse And The Increase Of Mixed Breed Bastards May Some Day Challenge The Supremacy Of The White Man.

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

The Best Way To Get A Bad Law Repealed Is To Enforce It Strictly.

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

In The Way Our Fathers Originally Left The Slavery Question, The Institution Was In The Course Of Ultimate Extinction, And The Public Mind Rested In The Belief That It Was In The Course Of Ultimate Extinction . . . . All I Have Asked Or Desired Anywhere, Is That It Should Be Placed Back Again Upon The Basis That The Fathers Of Our Government Originally Placed It Upon.

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

Your Organization Will Take On The Personality Of Its Top Leaders

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.

Reputation Is Like Fine China: Once Broken It's Very Hard To Repair.

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

With The Catching Ends The Pleasure Of The Chase.

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Ivy Compton-Burnett

John Cassavetes

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