The Wisdom of the Great - Abraham Lincoln

If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?

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.  


Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose - and you allow him to make war at pleasure.

The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.
 
Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.  


Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?

I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.
 
Every one desires to live long, but no one would be old.  


America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.

Important principles may, and must, be inflexible.
 
Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe. 

How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg. 

These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people.
 
I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.

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

You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.  


Republicans are for both the man and the dollar, but in case of conflict the man before the dollar. 

The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.

Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.