10000+ Motivational and Inspiring Quotes About Life, Love & Success

My parents were both born in Virginia,

of undistinguished families

second families,

perhaps I should say.

To the best of my judgment, I have labored for,

and not against, the Union.

As I have not felt, so I have not expressed

any harsh sentiment towards our Southern brethren.

I have constantly declared,

as I really believed, the only difference between

them and us is the difference of circumstances.

I was losing interest in politics,

when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again.

What I have done since then is pretty well known.

Among the friends of Union,

there is great diversity of sentiment

and of policy in regard to slavery and the African race among us.

Nothing new here,

except my marrying,

which to me is a matter of profound wonder.

It has so happened in all ages of the world that some have labored,

and others have, without labor,

enjoyed a large proportion of the fruits.

Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature

opposition to it is his love of justice.

These principles are an eternal antagonism;

and when brought into collision so fiercely,

as slavery extension brings them,

shocks and throes and convulsions must ceaselessly follow.

In this sad world of ours,

sorrow comes to all;

and to the young,

it comes with bitterest agony because it takes them unawares.

I have had experience enough to know what I say.

We find ourselves under the government of

a system of political institutions,

conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty,

than any of which the history of former times tells us.

I understand a ship to be made for the carrying

and preservation of the cargo,

and so long as the ship can be saved, with the cargo,

it should never be abandoned.

This Union likewise should never be abandoned unless

it fails and the possibility of its preservation shall cease to exist,

without throwing passengers and cargo overboard.

My father... removed from Kentucky to... Indiana,

in my eighth year... It was a wild region,

with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods.

There I grew up... Of course when I came of age,

I did not know much.

Still somehow, I could read, write, and cipher...

but that was all.

It was that which gave promise that in due time

the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men,

and that all should have an equal chance.

This is the sentiment embodied in that Declaration of Independence.

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.

The way for a young man to rise

is to improve himself in every way he can,

never suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him.

Let reverence for the laws be breathed by

every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap

let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges;

let it be written in primers, spelling books, and in almanacs;

let it be preached from the pulpit,

proclaimed in legislative halls,

and enforced in courts of justice.

The people themselves,

and not their servants,

can safely reverse their own deliberate decisions.

I believe it is universally understood and acknowledged

that all men will ever act correctly,

unless they have a motive to do otherwise.

Knavery and flattery are blood relations.

Don't swap horses in crossing a stream.

In my view of the present aspect of affairs,

there is no need of bloodshed and war.

There is no necessity for it.

I am not in favor of such a course,

and I may say in advance,

there will be no blood shed unless it be forced upon the government.

The government will not use force unless force is used against it.