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A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations...is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it does of necessity fly to anarchy or to despotism.

Abraham Lincoln

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Abraham Lincoln
Age: 56 †
Born: 1809
Born: February 12
Died: 1865
Died: April 15
16Th U.S. President
Farmer
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Hodgenville
Kentucky
Honest Abe
A. Lincoln
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True
Limitation
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Whoever
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Limitations
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Rejects

More quotes by Abraham Lincoln

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You can always lie to others and hide your actions from them... but you can not fool yourself
Abraham Lincoln
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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
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People are just as happy as they choose to be.
Abraham Lincoln
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Never let your correspondence fall behind.
Abraham Lincoln
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I go for all sharing the privileges of the government who assist in bearing its burdens. Consequently I go for admitting all whites to the right of suffrage who pay taxes or bear arms, by no means excluding females.
Abraham Lincoln
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The Union, and the Constitution, are the picture of silver, subsequently framed around it. The picture was not made to conceal or destroy the apple, but to adorn and preserve it. The picture was made for the apple-not the apple for the picture.
Abraham Lincoln
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When I have a particular case in hand, I have that motive and feel an interest in the case, feel an interest in ferreting out the questions to the bottom, love to dig up the question by the roots and hold it up and dry it before the fires of the mind.
Abraham Lincoln
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In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you.... You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect and defend it.
Abraham Lincoln
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You say you will not fight to free negroes. Some of them seem willing to fight for you but, no matter. Fight you, then exclusively to save the Union.
Abraham Lincoln
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How many times have I laughed at you telling me plainly that I was too lazy to be anything but a lawyer.
Abraham Lincoln
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I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember when I did not so think, and feel. And yet I have never understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act officially upon this judgment and feeling.
Abraham Lincoln
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Whenever there is a conflict between human rights and property rights, human rights must prevail.
Abraham Lincoln
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A drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall. So with men. If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey which catches his heart, which, say what he will, is the highroad to his reason.
Abraham Lincoln
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The purposes of the Almighty are perfect, and must prevail, though we erring mortals may fail to accurately perceive them in advance.
Abraham Lincoln
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I would like to speak in terms of praise due to the many brave officers and soldiers who have fought in the cause of the war.
Abraham Lincoln
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As to your kind wishes for myself, allow me to say I can not enter the ring on the money basis--first, because, in the main, it iswrong and secondly, I have not, and can not get, the money. I say, in the main, the use of money is wrong but for certain objects, in a political contest, the use of some, is both right, and indispensable.
Abraham Lincoln
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Honor to the soldier and sailor everywhere, who bravely bears his country's cause. Honor, also, to the citizen who cares for his brother in the field and serves, as he best can, the same cause.
Abraham Lincoln
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No organic law can ever be framed with a provision specifically applicable to every question which may occur in practical administration. .. No foresight can anticipate nor any document of reasonable length contain express provisions for all possible questions.
Abraham Lincoln
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Lamon, that speech won't scour. It is a flat failure and the people are disappointed.
Abraham Lincoln
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I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.
Abraham Lincoln