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
It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Governments are designed to perpetuate themselves and rarely include mechanisms for their dissolution.
Abraham Lincoln's quote suggests that governments are inherently structured for self-preservation and continuity. This implies that in their foundational laws, there are typically no provisions that allow for their own dissolution, highlighting the nature of authority and governance where entities prioritize their survival and stability over potential reform or closure.
Themes
GovernmentAuthoritySelf-PreservationLawTermination
In practice
Example use cases
During a debate on governmental reform, one might quote Lincoln to emphasize the challenges of dismantling existing power structures.
More from Abraham Lincoln
All quotes βSir, 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
The words that come out of our mouths do not vanish but are perpetually stored in infinite space, and they will come back to us in due time.
Elif SafakRead
Synchronistic events constitute moments in which a 'cosmic' or 'greater' meaning becomes gradually conscious in an individual; generally it is a shaking experience.
Marie-Louise Von FranzRead
The empiric easily degenerates into the quack. He does not know where his knowledge begins or leaves off, and so when he gets beyond routine conditions he begins to pretend-to make claims for which there is no justification, and to trust to luck and to ability to impose upon others-to "bluff."
John DeweyRead
When we get up in the morning, what we put on is very much a reflection of how we see the world and how we want it to see us.
Kenneth ColeRead
Tithe in kind where your spirit is fed.
Oprah WinfreyRead
Society's preservation against the unlimited violence of scandals lies in the mimetic coalition against the single victim and its ensuing limited violence. The violent death of Jesus is, humanly speaking, an example of this strange process.
Rene GirardRead