Lincoln Quotes

In the Earliest Days
In the earliest days of my being able to read, I got hold of a small book, Weems’ Life of Washington. I remember all the accounts there given of the battlefields and Struggles for the liberties of the country, . . . I recollect thinking then, boy even though I was, that there must have been something more than common that these men struggled for. I am exceedingly anxious that that thing that something even more than national independence; that something that held out a great promise to all the people of the world to all time to come I am exceedingly anxious that this Union, the Constitution, and the liberties of the people shall be perpetuated in accordance with the original idea for which that struggle was made. . . .
The Declaration of Independence.
In Congress, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united states of America, When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the cause which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness.—That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
As I Would Not
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master.

This expresses my idea of democracy.

Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference is not democracy.
Whenever I Hear Someone
Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery….
I feel a strong impulse to have it tried on him personally.
Those Who Deny Freedom
Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and, under a just God, cannot long retain it.
Qualified Voters
It is not the qualified voters, but the qualified voters who choose to vote, that constitute the political power of the State.

19th Amendment
Ratified by Congress on August 18, 1920
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
On Public Sentiment
In this and like communities, public sentiment is everything.

With public sentiment nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed.

Consequently, he who molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions.

He makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to be executed.
A House Divided
“’A house divided against itself cannot stand.’
I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave 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.”
Maryland Speech
The world moves-
“the shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat,

for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as a liberator,

while the wolf denounced him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty, especially as the sheep was a black one.

Plainly the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of the word liberty; and precisely the same difference prevails to-day among us human creatures, even in the North, and all professing to love liberty. Hence we behold the processes by which thousands are daily passing from under the yoke of bondage, hailed by some as the advance of liberty, and bewailed by others as the destruction of all liberty. Recently, as it seems, the people of Maryland have been doing something to define liberty; and thanks to them that, in what they have done, the wolf’s dictionary, has been repudiated.”
Being President
I happen, temporarily, to occupy the White House.

I am a living witness that any one of your children may look to come here as my father’s child has.
Gettysburg Address
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
“Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
“But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. 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 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 — that 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.”
Farewell
My friends- No one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of the Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.