Abraham Lincoln Free Quotations

Freedom is the last, best hope of earth.

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

The ballot is stronger than the bullet.

Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.

I have never had a feeling, politically, that did not spring from the Declaration of Independence that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence, I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it.

In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free - honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.

As a nation, we began by declaring that 'all men are created equal.' We now practically read it 'all men are created equal, except negroes.' When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read 'all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.' When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty – to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.

Many free countries have lost their liberty, and ours may lose hers; but if she shall, be it my proudest plume, not that I was the last to desert, but that I never deserted her

Do not destroy that immortal emblem of humanity, the Declaration of Independence.

The human mind is impelled to action, or held in rest by some power, over which the mind itself has no control.

I intend no modification of my oft-expressed wish that all men everywhere could be free.

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

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.

And then, the negro being doomed, and damned, and forgotten, to everlasting bondage, is the white man quite certain that the tyrant demon will not turn upon him too?

I have always thought that all men should be free; but if any should be slaves, it should be first those who desire for themselves, and secondly those who desire it for others. Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.

The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society.

In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free -- honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve.

We must free the slaves or be ourselves subdued. The slaves were undeniably a element of strength to those who had their service, and we must decide whether that element should be with us or "against us". Emancipation, will strike at the heart of the rebellion." Said to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles.

He who would be no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves and, under a just God, cannot long retain it.

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.

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it.

Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought. Let us have faith that right makes might and in that faith let us; to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.

Elections belong to the people. It's their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.

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.

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

The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty.

Lets have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.