“Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way.”
Speech in the House of Representatives (20 June 1848)
1840s
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Abraham Lincoln 618
16th President of the United States 1809–1865Related quotes
“We shall now seek that which we shall not find”
“We shall find peace. We shall hear the angels, we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.”
Act IV
Uncle Vanya (1897)
The Poverty of Historicism (1957) Ch. 29 The Unity of Method
Context: If we are uncritical we shall always find what we want: we shall look for, and find, confirmations, and we shall look away from, and not see, whatever might be dangerous to our pet theories. In this way it is only too easy to obtain what appears to be overwhelming evidence in favor of a theory which, if approached critically, would have been refuted.
“For why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do?”
No. 84
The Federalist Papers (1787–1788)
Context: I go further, and affirm that bills of rights, in the sense and to the extent in which they are contended for, are not only unnecessary in the proposed Constitution, but would even be dangerous. They would contain various exceptions to powers not granted; and, on this very account, would afford a colorable pretext to claim more than were granted. For why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do?
Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 95.
1900s, The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses (1900), The Strenuous Life
