Lincoln Quotes

“Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”
― Abraham Lincoln

“No man is poor who has a Godly mother.”
― Abraham Lincoln

“All I have learned, I learned from books.”
― Abraham Lincoln

“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.”
― attributed to Abraham Lincoln but discredited.

“Maybe it’s not as clear-cut as that. Maybe it’s the very presence of one thing – light or darkness – that necessitates the existence of the other.
Think about it, people couldn’t become legendary heroes if they hadn’t first done something to combat darkness. Doctors could do no good if there
weren’t diseases for them to treat.”
― jessica shirvington

“How many of us have conflicts with someone else- and how many of us pray for that person? We have individuals with whom we are competitive, or whom we dislike or have a quarrel with; but very few of us have true enemies in the martial sense. And yet if Lincoln could pray fervently- and contemporary reports indicate he did- for the people who were opposing him, how much more can we do for someone we just find a little irritating?”
― John Wooden, A Game Plan for Life: The Power of Mentoring

“Women are the only people I am afraid of who I never thought would hurt me”
― Abraham Lincoln

“Someone asked me...how it felt and I was reminded of a story that a fellow townsman of ours used to tell--Abraham Lincoln. They asked him how he felt once after an unsuccessful election. He said he felt like a little boy who had stubbed his toe in the dark. He said that he was too old to cry, but it hurt too much to laugh.”
― Adlai E. Stevenson II

“It will not do to investigate the subject of religion too closely, as it is apt to lead to infidelity.”
― Abraham Lincoln

“Lincoln once said that America was founded on a proposition that was written by Jefferson in 1776. We are really founded on an argument about what that proposition means.”
― Joseph J. Ellis, Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation

“ Thanks for giving me a place to sleep last night,
and for the extra blanket.
Vi.
-Violet's note to Lincoln”
― Jessica Shirvington, Emblaze

“Contrary to his infallibly "honest" image, Abe wasn't above lying so long as it served a noble purpose.”
― Seth Grahame-Smith, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

“What is to be, will be, and no prayers of ours can arrest the decree.”
― Abraham Lincoln

“Lincoln's ability to retain his emotional balance in such difficult situations was rooted in actute self-awareness and an enormous capacity to dispel anxiety in constructive ways.”
― Doris Kearns Goodwin

“If you want to test a man's character, give him power.”
― Abraham Lincoln

“If we put our trust in the common sense of common men and 'with malice toward none and charity for all' go forward on the great adventure of making political, economic and social democracy a practical reality, we shall not fail.”
― Henry Wallace

“The hen is the wisest of all the animal creation, because she never cackles until the egg is laid.”
― Abraham Lincoln

“Lilac and star and bird twined with the chant of my soul,
There in the fragrant pines and the cedars dusk and dim.”
― Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

“Don't know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal—you sockdologizing old man-trap.”
― Tom Taylor, Our American Cousin

“[Prison Break is] one of the craziest, most unpredictable roller-coaster rides on TV today.”
― Stephen King

“It is better to give your path to a dog than to be bitten by him, contesting for the right.”
― Abe Lincoln

“It is a well known fact that Abraham Lincoln spent much of his spare time visiting wounded soldiers in Union Army hospitals. I've spent thirty years teaching history at Columbia and I don't think I've spent more than fifteen minutes in the freshman dorm. Are we the ones keeping Lincoln's memory alive? Or are we burying it?”
― Eric Foner, Our Lincoln: New Perspectives on Lincoln and His World

“Jacob thought about going home. He still had some American change, which he kept in an empty matchbox in his sock drawer, and one night, after he had finished his pancakes and jam, he took the coins out, spread them on the kitchen table, and admired the burnt sienna patina of one of the pennies, which in the candlelight was iridescent with violet and green where people’s touch had salted it. The portrait of Lincoln was ugly and noble, and Jacob took off his glasses to look more closely. On the other side, an erratic line of shrubbery was engraved beside the Lincoln monument’s steps. The idealism seemed to be in Lincoln rather than in the coin’s design, which was homely. It was so homely, in fact, that there was a kind of democratic grandeur to it. It was the most beautiful currency in the world. Jacob was on the verge of tears.”
― Caleb Crain, Necessary Errors

“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.”
― Abraham Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's First Inaugural Address

“To Lincoln's mind, the battle to save the Union contained an even larger purpose than ending slavery, which was after all sanctioned by the very Constitution he was sworn to uphold. "I consider the central idea pervading this struggle," he told Hay in early May, "is the necessity that is upon us, of proving that popular government is not an absurdity. We must settle this question now, whether in a free government the minority have the right to break up the government whenever they choose. If we fail it will go far to prove the incapability of the people to govern themselves.”
― Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

“Abraham Lincoln was correct when he said that less than one-half day's cost of the Civil War could have purchased the freedom of all the slaves in Delaware.

The Civil War cost the two sides a total of $6.6 billion in 1860s dollars, enough to buy the freedom of all the slaves at their 1860 market value, give each slave family 40 acres and a mule and make $3.5 billion in reparations to former slaves in lieu of 100 years of back wages.”
― Claudia Goldin

“Peachy imagined the two great chiefs far off in the big white house, sucking their pipes, talking peace, and drawing on some ancient power to cut a hole in the day.”
― Tess Kincaid, Pechewa: An American Odyssey

“The story in Lincoln dramatizes the President’s efforts to install a 13th Amendment to the Constitution that abolishes slavery. His struggle is more than politically correct; it is presumed inarguably correct which takes the movie outside of history; outside of dramatic immediacy. Watching Lincoln is very much like observing a flesh-and-blood diorama. Everything is soon to be settled (within 2½ hours); there’s no emotional suspense.”
― Armond White

“But I was stuck for a long time by myself at Abraham Lincoln's portrait, standing in the middle of the huge hall as people moved all around me with mostly children. I felt as if time had stopped as I watched Lincoln, facing him, while watching the woman’s back as she was looking out the window. I felt wronged, so much like Truman from the movie, standing there in the middle of the museum alone. I was wondering what would Abraham Lincoln do if he realized he was the slave in his own cotton fields, being robbed by evil thieves, nazis.
I had taken numerous photos of Martina from behind, as well as silhouettes of her shadow. I remember standing there, watching as she stood in front of the window; it was almost as if she was admiring the view of the mountains from our new home, as I did take such pictures of her, with a very similar composition to that of the female depicted in the iconic Lincoln portrait looking outwards from the window. I hadn't realized how many photographs I snapped of Martina with her back turned towards me while we travelled to picturesque places. Fernanda and I walked side-by-side in utter silence, admiring painting after painting of Dali's, without exchanging a single word. Meanwhile, Luis and Martina had got lost somewhere in the museum. When I finally found her, she was taking pictures outside of the Rainy Cadillac. We both felt something was amiss without having to say it, as Fernanda knew things I didn't and vice versa. We couldn't bring ourselves to discuss it though, not because we lacked any legal authority between me and Martina, but because neither Fernanda or myself had much parental authority over the young lady. It felt like when our marriages and divorces had dissolved, it was almost as if our parenting didn't matter anymore. It was as if I were unwittingly part of a secret screenplay, like Jim Carrey's character in The Truman Show, living in a fabricated reality made solely for him. I was beginning to feel a strange nauseous feeling, as if someone was trying to force something surreal down my throat, as if I were living something not of this world, making me want to vomit onto the painted canvas of the personalised image crafted just for me. I couldn't help but wonder if Fernanda felt the same way, if she was aware of the magnitude of what was happening, or if, just like me, she was completely oblivious, occasionally getting flashes of truth or reality for a moment or two. I took some amazing photographs of her in Port Lligat in Dali's yard in the port, and in Cap Creus, but I'd rather not even try to describe them—they were almost like Dali's paintings which make all sense now. As if all the pieces are coming together. She was walking by the water and I was walking a bit further up on the same beach on pebbles, parallel to each other as we walked away from Dali's house in the port. I looked towards her and there were two boats flipped over on the two sides of my view.

I told her: “Run, Bunny! Run!”
― Tomas Adam Nyapi, BARCELONA MARIJUANA MAFIA

“Even Lincoln started off as a backboneless traditionalist, who was prepared to do whatever it takes to save the union. But in time he corrected himself, and became an ally of abolition.

If you cannot be an activist, be an ally. If you cannot be an ally, be silent. There is always something you can do, if not, try not to be an inhuman burden.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Brit Actually: Nursery Rhymes of Reparations