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Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln Quotes

16th U.S. President

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Famous Abraham Lincoln Quotes

“Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who deserts, while I must not touch a hair of the wily agitator who induces him to desert? I think that in such a cse to silence the agitator and save the boy is not only constitutional but withal a great mercy.”

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Book:Abraham Lincoln, a Documentary Portrait Through His Speeches and Writings
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“In the present civil war it is quite possible that God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party.”

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Book:The Modern Library Civil War Bookshelf 5-Book Bundle: Personal Memoirs, Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Red Badge of Courage, Jefferson Davis: The Essential Writings, The Life and Writings of Abraham Lincoln
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“If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would do that. I have here stated my purpose according to my official duty, and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men, everywhere, could be free.”

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Author:Abraham Lincoln
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“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”

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Author:Abraham Lincoln
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“Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.”

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Author:Abraham Lincoln
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“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.”

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Author:Abraham Lincoln
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“With Malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds.”

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Author:Abraham Lincoln
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“I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.”

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Book:The Wit & Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln: A Treasury of Quotations, Anecdotes, and Observations
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“Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.”

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Author:Abraham Lincoln
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“With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die.”

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Book:The Wit & Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln: A Treasury of Quotations, Anecdotes, and Observations
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“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.”

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Author:Abraham Lincoln
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“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.”

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Book:The Portable Abraham Lincoln
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“A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and 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.”

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Author:Abraham Lincoln
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“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

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Author:Abraham Lincoln
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“The better part of one's life consists of his friendships.”

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Book:The Complete Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln (Biographically Annotated Edition)
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“The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. --as quoted in THE RIVER OF WINGED DREAMS”

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Book:The Lincoln Mailbag: America Writes to the President, 1861-1865
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“But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or to detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.”

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Author:Abraham Lincoln
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