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@xy, member from Sept. 25, 2023
Abraham Lincoln photo

“If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

1850s, Speech at Peoria, Illinois (1854)
Context: The foregoing history may not be precisely accurate in every particular; but I am sure it is sufficiently so, for all the uses I shall attempt to make of it, and in it, we have before us, the chief material enabling us to correctly judge whether the repeal of the Missouri Compromise is right or wrong.
I think, and shall try to show, that it is wrong; wrong in its direct effect, letting slavery into Kansas and Nebraska — and wrong in its prospective principle, allowing it to spread to every other part of the wide world, where men can be found inclined to take it.
This declared indifference, but as I must think, covert real zeal for the spread of slavery, I can not but hate. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world — enables the enemies of free institutions, with plausibility, to taunt us as hypocrites — causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity, and especially because it forces so many really good men amongst ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of civil liberty — criticising the Declaration of Independence, and insisting that there is no right principle of action but self-interest.

Abraham Lincoln photo

“It will not do to investigate the subject of religion too closely, as it is apt to lead to Infidelity.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Claimed by atheist Franklin Steiner, on p. 144 of one of his books to have appeared in Manford's Magazine but he never gives a year of publication.
Misattributed

Abraham Lincoln photo
Abraham Lincoln photo

“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.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Source: 1860s, First State of the Union address (1861)
Context: 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. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and probably always will be, a relation between labor and capital producing mutual benefits. The error is in assuming that the whole labor of community exists within that relation.

Abraham Lincoln photo

“I am nothing, truth is everything.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Abraham Lincoln photo

“But for this book we could not know right from wrong.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Abraham Lincoln photo
Abraham Lincoln photo
Abraham Lincoln photo
Abraham Lincoln photo
Abraham Lincoln photo
Abraham Lincoln photo

“A friend is one who has the same enemies as you have.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Abraham Lincoln photo

“I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him. Be honest, but hate no one; overturn a man's wrongdoing, but do not overturn him unless it must be done in overturning the wrong. Stand with a man while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

The last sentence is from the 16 October 1854 Peoria speech, slightly paraphrased. No known contemporary source for the rest. It first appears, attributed to Lincoln, in US religious/inspirational journals in 1907-8, such as p123, Friends Intelligencer: a religious and family journal, Volume 65, Issue 8 (1908)
Misattributed

Abraham Lincoln photo

“Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people can be engaged in.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Address Delivered in Candidacy for the State Legislature (9 March 1832)
1830s
Context: Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people can be engaged in. That every man may receive at least a moderate education, and thereby be enabled to read the histories of his own and other countries, by which he may duly appreciate the value of our free institutions, appears to be an object of vital importance, even on this account alone, to say nothing of the advantages and satisfaction to be derived from all being able to read the Scriptures, and other works both of a religious and moral nature, for themselves.

Abraham Lincoln photo

“Anybody will do for you, but not for me. I must have.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Abraham Lincoln photo

“Women are the only people I am afraid of who I never thought would hurt me”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Variant: A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me.

Abraham Lincoln photo
Abraham Lincoln photo