The Lincoln Year Book: Axioms and Aphorisms from the Great Emancipator. Lincoln Abraham

the foot down firmly.

SIXTH

      The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise to the occasion.

SEVENTH

      I bring a heart true to the work.

EIGHTH

      The people will save their government, if the government itself will do its part only indifferently well.

NINTH

      Most certainly I intend no injustice to any one, and if I have done any I deeply regret it.

TENTH

      With firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right.

ELEVENTH

      Action in the crisis of a nation must accord with its necessities, and therefore can seldom be confined to precedent.

TWELFTH

      You can't put a long sword in a short scabbard.

THIRTEENTH

      "I have made it a rule of my life," said the old parson, "not to cross Fox River until I get to it."

FOURTEENTH

      It is sometimes well to be humble.

FIFTEENTH

      Don't let joy carry you into excesses.

SIXTEENTH

      Liberty is your birthright.

SEVENTEENTH

      If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must, or government will cease.

EIGHTEENTH

      Learn the laws and obey them.

NINETEENTH

      It is easy to conceive that all these shades of opinion, and even more, may be sincerely entertained by honest and truthful men.

TWENTIETH

      It is better only sometimes to be right than at all times wrong.

TWENTY-FIRST

      When you have an elephant on hand, and he wants to run away, better let him run.

TWENTY-SECOND

      Whatever God designs, He will do for me yet.

TWENTY-THIRD

      Quarrel not at all.

TWENTY-FOURTH

      Let no opportunity of making a mark escape.

TWENTY-FIFTH

      I want in all cases to do right; and most particularly so in all cases with women.

TWENTY-SIXTH

      I should rejoice to be spared the labor of a contest, but being in I shall go it thoroughly.

TWENTY-SEVENTH

      I intend discourtesy to no one.

TWENTY-EIGHTH

      The doctrine of self-government is right – absolutely and eternally right.

TWENTY-NINTH

      This government is expressly charged with the duty of providing for the general welfare.

THIRTIETH

      We are not bound to follow implicitly in whatever our fathers did. To do so would be to reject all progress, all improvement.

THIRTY-FIRST

      Understanding the spirit of our institutions to aim at the elevation of men, I am opposed to whatever tends to degrade them.

      APRIL

       The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause which we deem to be just.

FIRST

      You can fool some of the people all of the time, or all of the people some of the time; but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.

SECOND

      He has abundant talents – quite enough to occupy all his time without devoting any to temper.

THIRD

      I do not argue – I beseech you to make the argument for yourself.