Abraham Lincoln

The demon of intemperance ever seems to have delighted in sucking the blood of genius and of generosity. What one of us but can call to mind some relative more promising in youth than all his fellows, who has fallen a sacrifice to his rapacity?

My wife is as handsome as when she was a girl, and I...fell in love with her; and what is more, I have never fallen out.

I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember when I did not so think, and feel. And yet I have never understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act officially upon this judgment and feeling.

Now what is Judge Douglas Popular Sovereignty? It is, as a principle, no other than that, if one man chooses to make a slave of another man, neither that other man nor anybody else has a right to object.

Now I confess myself as belonging to that class in the country who contemplate slavery as a moral, social and political evil.

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.

To stand in silence when they should be protesting makes cowards of men.

Always remember: Life is for enjoying.

Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.

I walk slowly, but never backwards.

Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors.

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.

Knavery and flattery are blood relations.

Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this.

The people themselves, and not their servants, can safely reverse their own deliberate decisions.

Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.

He who molds the public sentiment... makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to make.

Every one desires to live long, but no one would be old.

Public opinion in this country is everything.

Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets.

What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.