I am like a man so busy in letting rooms in one end of his house, that he can't stop to put out the fire that is burning the other.
Abraham LincolnRead
The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Jefferson's principles outline the fundamental ideas that support a free society.
In this quote, Abraham Lincoln emphasizes that the foundational principles established by Thomas Jefferson, particularly those concerning liberty and equality, serve as the guiding definitions and rules for a society that values freedom. Lincoln suggests that understanding and adhering to these principles is essential for the functioning and sustainability of a free society.
Themes
JeffersonFreedomSocietyPrinciplesAxioms
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of democratic values.
More from Abraham Lincoln
All quotes →Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.
Abraham LincolnRead
Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.
Abraham LincolnRead
How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.
Abraham LincolnRead
For it has been said, all that a man hath will he give for his life; and while all contribute of their substance the soldier puts his life at stake, and often yields it up in his country's cause. The highest merit, then is due to the soldier.
Abraham LincolnRead
And having thus chosen our course, without guile, and with pure purpose, let us renew our trust in God, and go forward without fear, and with manly hearts.
Abraham LincolnRead
Similar quotes
Old age isn't a battle; old age is a massacre.
Philip RothRead
We have to keep company with supposedly bad characters if we are to survive and not succumb to mental atrophy. People of good character, so called, are the ones who end up boring us to death.
Thomas BernhardRead
Whatever may be open to disagreement, there is one act of evil that may not, the act that no man may commit against others and no man may sanction or forgive. So long as men desire to live together, no man may initiate—do you hear me? no man may start—the use of physical force against others.
Ayn RandRead
Nothing is more painful to the human mind than, after the feelings have been worked up by a quick succession of events, the dead calmness of inaction and certainty which follows and deprives the soul both of hope and fear.
Mary Wollstonecraft ShelleyRead
PITY, n. A failing sense of exemption, inspired by contrast.
Ambrose BierceRead
We ought not to extract pernicious honey from poison blossoms of misrepresentation and mendacious half-truth, to pamper the course appetite of bigotry and self-love.
Samuel Taylor ColeridgeRead