Abraham Lincoln

“ 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. ”

“ It is the man who does not want to express an opinion whose opinion I want.
THIRTY-FIRST
I hope I am a Christian.
SEPTEMBER I feel that the time is coming when the sun shall shine, the rain fall, on no man who shall go forth to unrequited toil.
FIRST
Labor is the superior of capital and deserves much the higher consideration. ”

“ Maintain the honor and integrity of the nation.
SIXTH
I look to the American people, and to that God who has never forsaken them.
SEVENTH
Secure peace through victory.
EIGHTH
What is the influence of fashion but the influence that other people's actions have on our actions?
NINTH
Our government rests in public opinion.
TENTH
Posterity has done nothing for us, and, theorize on it as we may, practically we shall do very little for it unless we are made to think we are, at the same time, doing something for ourselves.
ELEVENTH
I am glad to find a man who can go ahead without me. ”

“ The rule of a minority, as a permanent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible.
SIXTEENTH
One poor man, colored though he be, with God on his side, is stronger against us than the hosts of the Rebellion.
SEVENTEENTH
Never fear, victory will come.
EIGHTEENTH
The Lord has not deserted me thus far, and He is not going to now.
NINETEENTH
I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.
TWENTIETH
Are you strong enough?
TWENTY-FIRST
If I do not go away from here a wiser man, I shall go away a better man.
TWENTY-SECOND
I know that liberty is right. ”

“ Implore the compassion and forgiveness of the Almighty, that he may enlighten the nation to know and to do His will.
TWENTY-EIGHTH
We should look beyond our noses.
TWENTY-NINTH
Labor for all now living, as well as all hereafter to live.
THIRTIETH
I have acted upon my best convictions, without selfishness or malice.
THIRTY-FIRST
Success does not so much depend upon external help as on self-reliance.
NOVEMBER All are of the great family of men, and if there is one shackle upon any of them, it would be far better to lift the load. ”

“ I have never had a feeling, politically, that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence.
SEVENTH
I have more pegs than holes to put them in.
EIGHTH
The government must not undertake to run the churches.
NINTH
All seems well with us.
TENTH
With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed.
ELEVENTH
It is no child's play to save the principles of Jefferson from total overthrow in this nation. ”

“ JUNE It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us,—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to the cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion,—that we here highly resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain. ”

“ Teach men that what they can not take by an election, neither can they take by war.
FIFTH
I authorize no bargains, and will be bound by none.
SIXTH
When a man is sincerely penitent for his misdeeds, and gives satisfactory evidence of the same, he can safely be pardoned.
SEVENTH
If destruction be our lot, it must spring up among ourselves.
EIGHTH
In a democracy, where the majority rule by the ballot through the forms of law, physical rebellions are radically wrong, unconstitutional, and are treason. ”

“ It is against my principles to contest a clear matter of right.
FIFTH
The strife of elections is but human nature applied to the facts of the case.
SIXTH
How nobly distinguished that people who shall have planted and nurtured both the political and moral freedom of their species!
SEVENTH
If we succeed, there will be glory enough.
EIGHTH
Office seekers are a curse to the country.
NINTH
Justice to all.
TENTH
It must be somebody's business.
ELEVENTH
Every man has a right to be equal to every other man. ”

“ With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor. ”

“ I have not willingly planted a thorn in any man's bosom.
THIRTEENTH
We had better have a friend than an enemy.
FOURTEENTH
In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free.
FIFTEENTH
No man resolved to make the most of himself can spare time for personal contention.
SIXTEENTH
There is no grievance that is a fit subject of redress by mob law.
SEVENTEENTH
Punishment has to follow sin.
EIGHTEENTH
Let us to the end dare to do our duty.
NINETEENTH
Few can be induced to labor exclusively for posterity, and none will do it enthusiastically. ”

“ Better give your path to a dog than to be bitten by him in contesting for the right. ”

“ Wanting to work is so rare a merit that it should be encouraged. ”

“ I trust I shall be willing to do my duty, though it costs my life. ”

“ Honest statesmanship is the employment of individual meannesses for the public good. ”

“ There is nothing like getting used to things.
TWENTY-SECOND
When the white man governs himself, that is self-government; but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self-government—that is despotism. ”

“ The first reformer in any movement has to meet with such a hard opposition, and gets so battered and bespattered, that afterward, when people find they have to accept his reform, they will accept it more easily from another man. ”

“ There is no such thing as a free man being fixed for life in the condition of a hired laborer.
FOURTH
There is, and probably always will be, a relation between labor and capital producing mutual benefits.
FIFTH
Labor is prior to and independent of capital.
SIXTH
This is a land where freedom of speech is guaranteed.
SEVENTH
Workingmen are the basis of all governments.
EIGHTH
Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world? ”

“ MARCH Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it.
FIRST
Twenty thousand is as much as any man ought to want.
SECOND
By general law, life and limb must be protected; yet often a limb must be amputated to save a life; but a life is never given merely to save a limb. ”

“ I think it more rare, if not more wise, for a public man to abstain from much speaking.
TWENTY-SEVENTH
At any rate, I will keep my part of the bargain.
TWENTY-EIGHTH
The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is why he made so many of them.
TWENTY-NINTH
When the time comes, I shall take the ground I think is right.
THIRTIETH
Let the thing be pressed.
MAY Two principles have stood face to face from the beginning of time and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity; the other is the divine right of kings.
FIRST
Revolutionize through the ballot box. ”

“ APRIL The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause which we deem to be just.
FIRST
You can fool some of the people all of the time, or all of the people some of the time; but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. ”

“ The struggle for to-day is not altogether for to-day—it is for a vast future. ”

“ If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference. ”

“ When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees. ”

“ Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors of bullets. ”

“ Obey God's commandments.
TENTH
Men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them.
ELEVENTH
Important principles may and must be inflexible. ”

“ The Lord prefers common-looking people. ”

“ Washington was a happy man, because he was engaged in benefiting his race.
NINETEENTH
When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion—kind, unassuming persuasion—should ever be adopted. ”

“ All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my mother. ”

“ He sticks through thick and thin,—I admire such a man.
TWENTY-FOURTH
If by the mere force of numbers a majority should deprive a minority of any constitutional right, it might in a moral point of view justify revolution,—certainly would if such right were a vital one. ”