ABRAHAM LINCOLN QUOTES IV

U.S. President (1809-1865)

Abraham Lincoln quote

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

Tags: government


It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

attributed, The Wit & Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln

Tags: vice


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

Tags: capitalism


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


Truth is generally the best vindication against slander.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

letter to Edwin Stanton, July 14, 1864

Tags: slander


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

Tags: sorrow


We cannot escape history.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

annual message, December 1, 1862

Tags: history


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

Tags: reason


On my return from Philadelphia, yesterday, where, in my anxiety I had been led to attend the whig convention, I found your last letter. I was so tired and sleepy, having ridden all night, that I could not answer it till today; and now I have to do so in the H. R. The leading matter in your letter, is your wish to return to the side of the mountains. Will you be a good girl in all things, if I consent? Then come along, and that as soon as possible. Having got the idea in my head, I shall be impatient till I see you.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

letter to his wife, June 12, 1848


If a man will stand up and assert, and repeat and reassert, that two and two do not make four, I know nothing in the power of argument that can stop him.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

speech at Peoria, Illinois, in reply to Senator Douglas, October 16, 1854


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

Tags: revolution


If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

speech, June 16, 1858


I have a congenital aversion to failure.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

letter to George E. Pickett, February 22, 1841

Tags: failure


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


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

Tags: slavery


Great distance in either time or space has wonderful power to lull and render quiescent the human mind.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

speech, February 22, 1842


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.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

letter to his wife, April 16, 1848


What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling sea coasts, the guns of our war steamers, or the strength our gallant and disciplined army? These are not our reliance against a resumption of tyranny in our fair land. All of those may be turned against our liberties, without making us weaker or stronger for the struggle. Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in our bosoms. Our defense is in the preservation of 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 around your own doors. Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage and you are preparing your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

speech at Edwardsville, Illinois, September 11, 1858

Tags: liberty


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


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

Tags: slavery