Abraham Lincoln Quotes

[Henry Moon]

Those are good quotes Annie. Thanks for posting them.

Terry

[Henry Moon]

Fragment of a speech on Slavery, July 1, 1854:

"...The most dumb and stupid slave that every toiled for a master, does constantly know that he is wronged. 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.
   
       Most governments have been based, practically, on the denial of equal rights of men, as I have, in part, stated them; ours began, by affirming those rights. They said, some men are too ignorant, and vicious, to share in government. Possibly so, said we; and, by your system, you would always keep them ignorant, and vicious. We proposed to give all a chance; and we expected the weak to grow stronger, the ignorant, wiser; and all better, and happier together.
   
      We made the experiment; and the fruit is before us."

Abraham Lincoln

[mobile_96]

Highly likely a fiction, but.......still........a very telling one.
  A story of Mr. Lincoln is picked out of an old file of a Southern newspaper, published at a date when the suggestion had more point than can now be readily under-stood.--when, indeed, it looked very much as if Richmond was not going to be going to be brought inside of "old Abe's" lines.
  It is related that a gentleman from some Northern city entered Mr. Lincoln's private office in the spring of 1862, and earnestly requested a pass to Richmond.
"A pass to Richmond! exclaimed the President:"Why my dear sir, if I should give you one it would do you no good. You may think it very strange, but there's a lot of fellows, between here and Richmond, who either can't read or are prejudiced against every man who totes a pass from me. I have given McClellan and more than two hundred thousand others passes to Richmond, and not a darned one of 'em has yet gotten there!"
From the Southern Bivouac, June 1885-May 1886-Vol.4.

[Webmaster Ann]

"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. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition, is yet to be developed."
-- March 9, 1832 - First Political Announcement

"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."
-- March 9, 1832 - First Political Announcement

"Towering genius distains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored."
-- January 27, 1838 - Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois

[Webmaster Ann]

"There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law."
-- January 27, 1838 - Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois

"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."
-- January 27, 1838 - Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois

"Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by every American mother, to the lisping babe, that prattles on her lap -- let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs; -- let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation; and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues, and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars."
-- January 27, 1838 - Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois

[Webmaster Ann]

"At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! 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. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.
-- January 27, 1838 - Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois

"The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just; it shall not deter me." "
-- December 26, 1839 - Speech on the Sub-Treasury in the Illinois House of Representatives

"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.'"
-- February 22, 1842 - Temperance Address of Springfield, Illinois

[Webmaster Ann]

"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."
-- February 22, 1842 - Temperance Address of Springfield, Illinois

"Happy day, when, all appetites controlled, all poisons subdued, all matter subjected, mind, all conquering mind, shall live and move the monarch of the world. Glorious consummation! Hail fall of Fury! Reign of Reason, all hail!"
-- February 22, 1842 - Temperance Address of Springfield, Illinois

The demon of intemperance ever seems to have delighted in sucking the blood of genius and of generosity.
-- February 22, 1842 - Temperance Address of Springfield, Illinois

"That I am not a member of any Christian Church, is true; but I have never denied the truth of the Scriptures; and I have never spoken with intentional disrespect of religion in general, or any denomination of Christians in particular."
-- July 31, 1846 - Handbill Replying to Charges of Infidelity

"I do not think I could myself, be brought to support a man for office, whom I knew to be an open enemy of, and scoffer at, religion."
-- July 31, 1846 - Handbill Replying to Charges of Infidelity

[Webmaster Ann]

"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."
-- August 11, 1846 - Letter to Allen N. Ford

"If as the friends of colonization hope, the present and coming generations of our countrymen shall by any means, succeed in freeing our land from the dangerous presence of slavery; and, at the same time, in restoring a captive people to their long-lost father-land, with bright prospects for the future; and this too, so gradually, that neither races nor individuals shall have suffered by the change, it will indeed be a glorious consummation."
-- July 6, 1852 - Eulogy on Henry Clay

"Mr. Clay's lack of a more perfect early education, however it may be regretted generally, teaches at least one profitable lesson; it teaches that in this country, one can scarcely be so poor, but that, if he will, he can acquire sufficient education to get through the world respectably."
-- July 6, 1852 - Eulogy on Henry Clay

"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."
-- August 15, 1855 - Letter to George Robertson

[Webmaster Ann]

"You know I dislike slavery; and you fully admit the abstract wrong of it."
-- August 24, 1855 - Letter to Joshua Speed

"The slave-breeders and slave-traders, are a small, odious and detested class, among you; and yet in politics, they dictate the course of all of you, and are as completely your masters, as you are the master of your own negroes."
-- August 24, 1855 - Letter to Joshua Speed

"When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty -- to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocracy [sic]."
-- August 24, 1855 - Letter to Joshua Speed

"I am not a Know-Nothing. That is certain. How could I be? How can any one who abhors the oppression of negroes, be in favor of degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that "all men are created equal." We now practically read it "all men are created equal, except Negroes." When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal, except Negroes and foreigners and Catholics." When it comes to this, I shall prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty - to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure and without the base alloy of hypocrisy."
-- August 24, 1855 - Letter to Joshua Speed

"If you are resolutely determined to make a lawyer of yourself, the thing is more than half done already."
-- November 5, 1855 - Letter to Isham Reavis

[Webmaster Ann]

"I believe this Government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free."
-- June 16, 1858 - House Divided Speech in Springfield, Illinois

"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."
-- June 16, 1858 - House Divided Speech in Springfield, Illinois

"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."
-- June 16, 1858 - House Divided Speech in Springfield, Illinois

"I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal."
-- July 10, 1858 - Speech at Chicago, Illinois

"Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed."
-- August 21, 1858 - Lincoln-Douglas debate at Ottawa

"I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway 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; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything."
-- September 18, 1858 - Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois