Abraham Lincoln was our 16th President, and he had two significant accomplishments. He preserved the Union. And he ended slavery in the United States by signing the Emancipation Proclamation. Here are some of his best quotes:
“A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved – I do not expect the house to fall – but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other.”
“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right…”
“We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope on earth.”
“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.”
“Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.”
“We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.”
The following quote is from Lincoln’s farewell speech to the citizens of Springfield, Illinois, when he left there to be President of the United States. This is what he actually said:
“Without the assistance of that divine being, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him, who can go with me, remain with you and be everywhere for good let us confidently hope that all will yet be well.”
I like to paraphrase Lincoln’s quotation like this: “Without God, I cannot succeed. With him, I cannot fail.”