Abraham Lincoln cytaty
strona 2

Abraham Lincoln – amerykański polityk, szesnasty prezydent Stanów Zjednoczonych Ameryki, uczestnik wojny Czarnego Jastrzębia. Zasiadał przez dwa lata jako przedstawiciel Partii Wigów w Izbie Reprezentantów. W 1860 roku z sukcesem ubiegał się o nominację Partii Republikańskiej na urząd Prezydenta Stanów Zjednoczonych. W głosowaniu powszechnym zwyciężył i piastowanie urzędu rozpoczął 4 marca 1861 roku. Trzy lata później ponownie został kandydatem partii na urząd prezydenta i został wybrany na drugą kadencję. Jego życie i prezydentura zakończyła się 15 kwietnia 1865 roku śmiercią w wyniku zamachu dokonanego przez Johna Wilkesa Bootha. Wikipedia  

✵ 12. Luty 1809 – 15. Kwiecień 1865   •   Natępne imiona Abramo Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln Fotografia
Abraham Lincoln: 663   Cytaty 15   Polubień

Abraham Lincoln słynne cytaty

„Moim problemem nie jest, czy Bóg jest po naszej stronie. Moim największym zmartwieniem jest, czy my jesteśmy po stronie Boga. Bo Bóg ma zawsze rację!”

My concern is not whether God is on our side. My great concern is to be on God’s side. For God is always right! (ang.)
Źródło: Michael Ozga, Progressive Dystopia

Abraham Lincoln Cytaty o ludziach

„Lat temu osiemdziesiąt i siedem ojcowie nasi na tym kontynencie dali początek narodowi, poczętemu z wolności i w przekonaniu, że wszyscy ludzie rodzą się równymi. Toczymy wielką wojnę domową, która jest dla nas czasem próby, której celem jest odpowiedź na pytanie, czy naród w takim duchu poczęty ma szanse na przetrwanie. Przyszło nam spotkać się na wielkim polu bitewnym tej wojny. Przybyliśmy tu, aby poświęcić część tego pola na miejsce ostatniego spoczynku ludzi, którzy oddali tu życie za życie naszego narodu w poczuciu wolności. I oni, i my znaleźliśmy się tu w słusznej sprawie, ale to naszą powinnością jest oddanie czci jej obrońcom. Jednak nie nam przypada splendor poświęcenia, dokonania konsekracji, potwierdzenia sacrum tej ziemi. To dzielni ludzie, żywi i polegli, którzy tu walczyli, uświęcili ja bardziej, niż może to uczynić nasza nędzna władza dawania i odbierania. Świat puści mimo uszu wypowiadane tu słowa i szybko pogrąży je w niepamięci, lecz nigdy nie zapomni czynu tych, którzy tu przelewali krew. Do nas, którym było dane przeżyć, należy święty obowiązek oddania swych sił ogromnemu, lecz jeszcze niedokończonemu dziełu, za które oni oddali swoje życie. To nam, ożywionym duchem poległych bohaterów, przypadło zadanie poświadczenia, że ich śmierć nie był daremna. I to my, z Boga pomocą, doczekamy odrodzenia idei wolności w tym kraju i to my sprawimy, że rządy ludu, przez lud i dla ludu nie znikną wraz z nami z powierzchni ziemi.”

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle – field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow, this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. (ang.)
Adres gettysburski – przemówienie podczas uroczystości na cmentarzu poległych po Gettysburgiem żołnierzy Unii, 19 listopada 1863.

„Można oszukiwać wszystkich (ludzi) przez pewien czas, a część ludzi przez cały czas, ale nie da się oszukiwać wszystkich przez cały czas.”

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time. (ang.)
Źródło: Alexander McClure, Lincoln's Own Yarns and Stories, 1901.

„Porzućmy wszelkie spory o tego czy tamtego człowieka, o tę czy tamtą rasę, o to, która z nich jest niższa, a zatem i o to, która musi znajdować się na pośledniej pozycji. Porzućmy to wszystko i zjednoczmy się w jeden lud na całej ziemi, aż wreszcie kiedyś powstaniemy razem, oświadczając, że wszyscy ludzie są równi.”

debata wyborcza ze Stephanem Douglasem w lipcu 1858 w Chicago (na północy stanu Illinois).
Źródło: Howard Zinn, Ludowa historia Stanów Zjednoczonych. Od roku 1492 do dziś, tłum. Andrzej Wojtasik, Wyd. Krytyki Politycznej, Warszawa 2016, s. 250.

Abraham Lincoln cytaty

„Idę wolno, ale nie cofam się nigdy.”

I am a slow walker, but I never walk backwards. (ang.)

„Demagogia – to umiejętność ubierania najbardziej lichych idei w najwznioślejsze słowa.”

Źródło: Leksykon złotych myśli, wyboru dokonał Krzysztof Nowak, Warszawa 1998.

„Nie jest moim celem wywieranie, ani bezpośrednio, ani pośrednio, wpływu na instytucję niewolnictwa w stanach, w których ona istnieje. Jestem przekonany, że nie mam ku temu uprawnień. Co więcej, nie mam też ku temu skłonności.”

pierwsze orędzie prezydenckie wygłoszone w marcu 1861.
Źródło: Howard Zinn, Ludowa historia Stanów Zjednoczonych. Od roku 1492 do dziś, tłum. Andrzej Wojtasik, Wyd. Krytyki Politycznej, Warszawa 2016, s. 251.

„Nie żywiąc urazy do nikogo, lecz miłość do każdego bliźniego, (…) nie ustawajmy w dążeniu do ukończenia dzieła, którego dokonujemy. Dzieła opatrzenia ran narodu.”

drugie przemówienie inauguracyjne (4 marca 1865)
Źródło: Rosemary Burton, Richard Cavendish, Cuda świata: Przewodnik po skarbach cywilizacji.

„Istnieje naturalna odraza w umysłach niemal wszystkich białych do przemieszania rasy białej z czarną…”

Źródło: cyt. za Leon Korusiewicz, Wojna secesyjna 1860–1865, wyd. PWN, 1985, s. 67.

„Nie pomaga się ludziom, robiąc za nich to, co sami mają zrobić.”

Źródło: Przykazania etyki prawniczej: księga myśli, norm i rycin, oprac. Roman Tokarczyk, wyd. Wolters Kluwer Polska, s. 31.

„Ilekroć słyszę kogoś opowiadającego się za niewolnictwem, mam wielką ochotę wypróbować to na nim osobiście.”

Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally. (ang.)
Źródło: cyt. za Marek Gołębiowski, Leksykon kultury amerykańskiej, wyd. Twój Styl, Warszawa 1996, s. 109.

To tłumaczenie czeka na recenzję. Czy to jest poprawne?
To tłumaczenie czeka na recenzję. Czy to jest poprawne?

Abraham Lincoln: Cytaty po angielsku

“Believing that these propositions, and the [conclusions] I draw from them can not be successfully controverted, I, for the present, assume their correctness, and proceed to try to show, that the abandonment of the protective policy by the American Government, must result in the increase of both useless labour, and idleness; and so, in pro[por]tion, must produce want and ruin among our people.”

"Fragments of a Tariff Discussion", Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 1, p. 415 http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/lincoln1/1:423?rgn=div1;view=fulltext; according to the source Lincoln's "scraps about protection were written by Lincoln, between his election to Congress in 1846, and taking his seat in Dec. 1847".
1840s

“Well, for people that like that sort of thing, I think it is just about the sort of thing they would like.”

Attributed to "an American President" in Ármin Vámbéry (1884), All the Year Round. It more likely originates in a spoof testimonial that Artemus Ward (Charles Farrar Browne) wrote in an advertisement in 1863:
Posthumous attributions

“To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.”

Sometimes attributed to Lincoln since a 1950 speech of Douglas MacArthur citing him as its author, this is actually from a poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
Misattributed

“I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal.”

Speech in reply to Senator Stephen Douglas in the Lincoln-Douglas debates http://www.bartleby.com/251/1003.html of the 1858 campaign for the U.S. Senate, at Chicago, Illinois (10 July 1858)
1850s, Lincoln–Douglas debates (1858)
Kontekst: My friend has said to me that I am a poor hand to quote Scripture. I will try it again, however. It is said in one of the admonitions of our Lord, "As your Father in Heaven is perfect, be ye also perfect." The Saviour, I suppose, did not expect that any human creature could be perfect as the Father in Heaven; but He said, "As your Father in Heaven is perfect, be ye also perfect." He set that up as a standard; and he who did most toward reaching that standard, attained the highest degree of moral perfection. So I say in relation to the principle that all men are created equal, let it be as nearly reached as we can. If we cannot give freedom to every creature, let us do nothing that will impose slavery upon any other creature. Let us then turn this Government back into the channel in which the framers of the Constitution originally placed it. Let us stand firmly by each other. If we do not do so we are turning in the contrary direction, that our friend Judge Douglas proposes — not intentionally — as working in the traces tend to make this one universal slave nation. He is one that runs in that direction, and as such I resist him. My friends, I have detained you about as long as I desired to do, and I have only to say, let us discard all this quibbling about this man and the other man; this race and that race and the other race being inferior, and therefore they must be placed in an inferior position; discarding our standard that we have left us. Let us discard all these things, and unite as one people throughout this land, until we shall once more stand up declaring that all men are created equal. My friends, I could not, without launching off upon some new topic, which would detain you too long, continue to-night. I thank you for this most extensive audience that you have furnished me to-night. I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal.

“Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change public opinion, can change the government, practically just so much.”

Źródło: Speech at a Republican Banquet, Chicago, Illinois, December 10, 1856 http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/lincoln2/1:413?rgn=div1;view=fulltext; see Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, vol. 2 (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1953), p. 532

“The Democracy are given to 'bushwhacking'. After having their errors and mis-statements continually thrust in their faces, they pay no heed, but go on howling about Seward and the 'irrepressible conflict'. That is 'bushwhacking.'”

Źródło: 1860s, Speech at Hartford (1860)
Kontekst: So with John Brown and Harper's Ferry. They charge it upon the Republican party and ignominiously fail in all attempts to substantiate the charge. Yet they go on with their bushwhacking, the pack in full cry after John Brown.

“Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.”

Often misquoted as: "I have found that most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." or "People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be."
This quote is not found in the various Lincoln sources which can be searched online (e.g. Gutenberg). Niether does Lincoln appear more generally to use the phrase "making up {one's} mind". The saying was first quoted, ascribed to Lincoln but with no source given, in 1914 by Frank Crane and several times subsequently by him in altered versions. It was later quoted in How to Get What You Want (1917) by Orison Swett Marden (Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1917), 74, again without source. Alternative versions quoted are: "I have found that most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be" and "People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be."


Źródło: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/10/20/happy-minds/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CPeople%20are%20about%20as%20happy,up%20their%20minds%20to%20be.%E2%80%9D&text=Remember%20Lincoln's%20saying%20that%20%E2%80%9Cfolks,up%20their%20minds%20to%20be.%E2%80%9D

Curiously in later books Crane, e.g. Four Minute Essays, 1919, Adventures in Common Sense, 1920, "21", 1930, Crane mentions other routes to happiness and does not again use this quote.

Marden used a great many quotes in his writings, without giving sources. Whilst sources for many of the quotes can be found, this is not true for all. For instance he mentions another story in which Lincoln says "Madam, you have not a peg to hang your case on"; this also does not seem to found in Lincoln sources.

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.”

Widely attributed to Lincoln, this appears to be derived from Thomas Carlyle's general comment below, but there are similar quotes about Lincoln in his biographies.
Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity.
Thomas Carlyle (1841) On Heroes and Hero Worship.
Any man can stand adversity — only a great man can stand prosperity.
Horatio Alger (1883), Abraham Lincoln: The Backwoods Boy; or, How a Young Rail-Splitter became President
Most people can bear adversity; but if you wish to know what a man really is give him power. This is the supreme test. It is the glory of Lincoln that, having almost absolute power, he never used it except on the side of mercy.
Robert G. Ingersoll (1883), Unity: Freedom, Fellowship and Character in Religion, Volume 11, Number 3, The Exchange Table, True Greatness Exemplified in Abraham Lincoln, by Robert G. Ingersoll (excerpt), Quote Page 55, Column 1 and 2, Chicago, Illinois. ( Google Books Full View https://books.google.com/books?id=JUIrAAAAYAAJ&q=%22man+really%22#v=snippet&)
If you want to discover just what there is in a man — give him power.
Francis Trevelyan Miller (1910), Portrait Life of Lincoln: Life of Abraham Lincoln, the Greatest American
Any man can handle adversity. If you truly want to test a man's character, give him power.
Attributed in the electronic game Infamous
Misattributed

“I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how he could look up into the heavens and say there is no God.”

Recollection by Gilbert J. Greene, quoted in The Speaking Oak (1902) by Ferdinand C. Iglehart and Latest Light on Abraham Lincoln (1917) by Ervin S. Chapman
Posthumous attributions

“All through life, be sure and put your feet in the right place, and then stand firm.”

As recalled by Rebecca R. Pomroy in Echoes from hospital and White House (1884), by Anna L. Boyden, p. 61 http://books.google.com/books?id=7LZiAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA61&dq=feet
Posthumous attributions
Wariant: Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.

“If I had another face, do you think I would wear this one?”

Attributed in Jean Dresden Grambs (1959), Abraham Lincoln Through the Eyes of High School Youth
Misattributed
Wariant: If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?

“I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to the light I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right — stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong.”

Reported as an inscription quoting Lincoln in an English college in The Baptist Teacher for Sunday-school Workers : Vol. 36 (August 1905), p. 483. The portion beginning with "stand with anybody..." is from the 16 October 1854 Peoria speech..
Posthumous attributions

“All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.”

Attributed in The Life of Abraham Lincoln (1866) by Josiah G. Holland, p. 23; also in The Real Life of Abraham Lincoln (1867) by George Alfred Townsend, p. 6; according to Townsend, Lincoln made this remark to his law partner, William Herndon. It is disputed whether this quote refers to Lincoln's natural mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, who died when he was nine years old, or to his stepmother, Sarah Bush (Johnston) Lincoln.
Posthumous attributions

“Perhaps a man's character was like a tree, and his reputation like its shadow; the shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”

As quoted in "Lincoln's Imagination" by Noah Brooks, in Scribner's Monthly (August 1879), p. 586 http://books.google.com/books?id=jOoGAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA586
Posthumous attributions
Wariant: Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed, is more important than any other one thing.”

Letter to Isham Reavis (5 November 1855)
1850s
Kontekst: If you are resolutely determined to make a lawyer of yourself, the thing is more than half done already. It is but a small matter whether you read with anyone or not. I did not read with anyone. Get the books, and read and study them till you understand them in their principal features; and that is the main thing. It is of no consequence to be in a large town while you are reading. I read at New Salem, which never had three hundred people living in it. The books, and your capacity for understanding them, are just the same in all places.... Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed, is more important than any other one thing.

“I will prepare and some day my chance will come.”

Attributed in Laura Haddock (1931), Steps Upward in Personality
Misattributed
Wariant: I will study and get ready, and perhaps my chance will come.

“Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”

His response when "accused of treating his opponents with too much courtesy and kindness, and when it was pointed out to him that his whole duty was to destroy them", as quoted in More New Testament Words (1958) by William Barclay; either this anecdote or Lincoln's reply may have been adapted from a reply attributed to Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund:
:* Some courtiers reproached the Emperor Sigismond that, instead of destroying his conquered foes, he admitted them to favour. “Do I not,” replied the illustrious monarch, “effectually destroy my enemies, when I make them my friends?”
::* "Daily Facts" in The Family Magazine Vol. IV (1837), p. 123 http://books.google.de/books?id=aW0EAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA123&dq=destroy; also quoted as simply in "Do I not effectually destroy my enemies, in making them my friends?" in The Sociable Story-teller (1846)
Disputed

“No country can sustain, in idleness, more than a small percentage of its numbers. The great majority must labor at something productive.”

1850s, Address before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society (1859)
Kontekst: The old general rule was that educated people did not perform manual labor. They managed to eat their bread, leaving the toil of producing it to the uneducated. This was not an insupportable evil to the working bees, so long as the class of drones remained very small. But now, especially in these free States, nearly all are educated — quite too nearly all, to leave the labor of the uneducated, in any wise adequate to the support of the whole. It follows from this that henceforth educated people must labor. Otherwise, education itself would become a positive and intolerable evil. No country can sustain, in idleness, more than a small percentage of its numbers. The great majority must labor at something productive.

Podobni autorzy