ABRAHAM LINCOLN QUOTES IV
U.S. President (1809-1865)
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It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
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attributed, The Wit & Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln
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In this sad world of ours sorrow comes to all, and to the young it comes with bittered agony because it takes them unawares. The older have learned to expect it.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
letter to Fanny McCullough, December 23, 1862
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. In all that the people can individually do as well for themselves, government ought not to interfere.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
fragment of a speech from July 1, 1854, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln
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.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
speech to Illinois legislature, Sangamo Journal, January 28, 1837
The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself every way he can, never suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
letter to William H. Herndon, July 10, 1848
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.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
speech in the United States House of Representatives, January 12, 1848
Great distance in either time or space has wonderful power to lull and render quiescent the human mind.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
speech, February 22, 1842
Truth is generally the best vindication against slander.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
letter to Edwin Stanton, July 14, 1864
It follows as a matter of course that a half-hour answer to a speech of an hour and a half can be but a very hurried one.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
debate with Stephen Douglas, September 18, 1858
I do not believe it is a constitutional right to hold slaves in a Territory of the United States. I believe the decision was improperly made, and I go for reversing it.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
debate with Stephen Douglas, October 15, 1858
Passion has helped us; but can do so no more. It will in future be our enemy. Reason, cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason, must furnish all the materials for our future support and defense.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
address to the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, January 27, 1838
In law it is a good policy never to plead what you need not, lest you oblige yourself to prove what you cannot.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
letter to Usher F. Linder, February 20, 1848
Without the assistance of that Divine Being ... I cannot succeed. With that assistance, I cannot fail.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
speech, February 11, 1861
We cannot escape history.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
annual message, December 1, 1862
Nobody has ever expected me to be President. In my poor, lean, lank face, nobody has ever seen that any cabbages were sprouting out.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
speech, July 17, 1858
For several years past the revenues of the government have been unequal to its expenditures, and consequently loan after loan, sometimes direct and sometimes indirect in form, has been resorted to. By this means a new national debt has been created, and is still growing on us with a rapidity fearful to contemplate--a rapidity only reasonably to be expected in a time of war. This state of things has been produced by a prevailing unwillingness either to increase the tariff or resort to direct taxation. But the one or the other must come. Coming expenditures must be met, and the present debt must be paid; and money cannot always be borrowed for these objects. The system of loans is but temporary in its nature, and must soon explode. It is a system not only ruinous while it lasts, but one that must soon fail and leave us destitute. As an individual who undertakes to live by borrowing soon finds his original means devoured by interest, and, next, no one left to borrow from, so must it be with a government. We repeat, then, that a tariff sufficient for revenue, or a direct tax, must soon be resorted to; and, indeed, we believe this alternative is now denied by no one.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Whig circular, 1843
If A. can prove, however conclusively, that he may, of right, enslave B. Why may not B. snatch the same argument, and prove equally, that he may enslave A? You say A. is white, and B. is black. It is color, then; the lighter, having the right to enslave the darker? Take care. By this rule, you are to be slave to the first man you meet, with a fairer skin than your own. You do not mean color exactly? You mean the whites are intellectually the superiors of the blacks, and, therefore have the right to enslave them? Take care again. By this rule, you are to be slave to the first man you meet, with an intellect superior to your own. But, say you, it is a question of interest; and, if you can make it your interest, you have the right to enslave another. Very well. And if he can make it his interest, he has the right to enslave you.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
fragment of a speech from 1854, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln
I have a congenital aversion to failure.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
letter to George E. Pickett, February 22, 1841
Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature -- opposition to it, in his love of justice.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
speech at Peoria, Illinois, in reply to Senator Douglas, October 16, 1854
The negative principle that no law is free law, is not much known except among lawyers.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
speech at Peoria, Illinois, in reply to Senator Douglas, October 16, 1854