àPresident Abraham Lincoln on WhiteHouse.gov
“Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.”
—From speech at Kalamazoo, Michigan
“…From these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain….”
—From “Gettysburg Address”
“I have been told I was on the road to hell, but I had no idea it was just a mile down the road with a Dome on it.”
“I have never had a feeling, politically, that did not spring from...the Declaration of Independence...that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence...I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it.”
“I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man who lives in it so that his place will be proud of him.”
“If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.”
“It is true that you can fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can't fool all of the people all the time.”
“Nearly all men can stand adversity; if you want to test a man's character, give him power.”
“Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that ‘all men are created equal.’ 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 hypocrisy.”
“Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step over 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 Bonaparte 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.”
“Stand with anybody that stands right. Stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.”
“This nation cannot survive half slave and half free.”
“…This nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
—From “Gettysburg Address”
“…We cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.”
—From “Gettysburg Address”
“Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.”
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