I have heard, in such a way as to believe it, of your recently saying that both the Army and the Government needed a Dictator. Of course it was not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given you the command. Only those generals who gain success, can set up dictators.~Abraham Lincoln
I believe the declaration that "all men are created equal" is the great fundamental principle upon which our free institutions rest.
~Abraham Lincoln
I believe each individual is naturally entitled to do as he pleases with himself and the fruit of his labor, so far as it in no wise interferes with any other man's rights.
~Abraham Lincoln
A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.
~Abraham Lincoln
Although volume upon volume is written to prove slavery a very good thing, we never hear of the man who wishes to take the good of it, by being a slave himself.
~Abraham Lincoln
Although what I am now to say is to be, in form, a reprimand, it is not intended to add a pang to what you have already suffered.
~Abraham Lincoln
Doubtless you begin to understand how disagreeable it is to me to do a thing arbitrarily, when it is unsatisfactory to others associated with me.
~Abraham Lincoln
~Abraham Lincoln
He who does something at the head of one Regiment, will eclipse him who does nothing at the head of a hundred.
~Abraham Lincoln
I am glad I made the late race. It gave me a hearing on the great and durable question of the age, which I could have had in no other way; and though I now sink out of view, and shall be forgotten, I believe I have made some marks which will tell for the cause of civil liberty long after I am gone.
~Abraham Lincoln
I believe you to be a brave and a skillful soldier, which, of course, I like. I also believe you do not mix politics with your profession, in which you are right.
~Abraham Lincoln
I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me.
~Abraham Lincoln
I expect to maintain this contest until successful, or till I die, or am conquered, or my term expires, or Congress or the country forsakes me.
~Abraham Lincoln
I find quite as much material for a lecture in those points wherein I have failed, as in those wherein I have been moderately successful.
~Abraham Lincoln
I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be "the Union as it was."
Our common country is in great peril, demanding the loftiest views, and boldest action to bring it speedy relief.
~Abraham Lincoln
To [secure] to each labourer the whole product of his labour, or as nearly as possible, is a most worthy object of any good government.
~Abraham Lincoln
Yet in all our rejoicing let us neither express, nor cherish, any harsh feeling towards any citizen who, by his vote, has differed with us.
~Abraham Lincoln