Lincoln Address & Quotes

Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through its greatest constitutional, military, and moral crises—the American Civil War—preserving the Union, abolishing slavery, strengthening the national government and modernizing the economy. Reared in a poor family on the western frontier, Lincoln was self-educated, and became a country lawyer, a Whig Party leader, Illinois state legislator during the 1830s, and a one-term member of the United States House of Representatives during the 1840s. (source: wikipedia.org)

The Gettysburg Address

By President Lincoln in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, November 19, 1863

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.

Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863

林肯总统在葛底斯堡的演说
（11/19/1863)

87年前，我们的先辈在这个大陆上创建了一个新的国家。她孕育于自由之中，奉行人人生来平等的信条。

现在我们正进行一场伟大的内战，以考验这个国家，或者任何一个孕育于自由和奉行人人生来平等信条的国家是否能够长久坚持下去。我们相聚在这场战争的一个伟大战场上，我们来到这里把这战场的一部分奉献给那些为国家生存而捐躯的人们，作为他们最后的安息之所。我们这样做是完全适合的、恰当的。

但是，从更高的意义上说，我们是不能奉献，不能圣化，也不能神化这片土地的，因为那些曾经在这里战斗过的人们，活着的和死去的人们，已经圣化了这片土地，他们所做的远非我们的微薄之力所能扬抑。这个世界不大会注意也不会长久记得我们今天在这里所说的话，但是，它永远不会忘记勇士们在这里所做的事。毋宁说，我们活着的人，应该献身于留在我们面前的伟大任务：从这些光荣的死者身上汲取更多的献身精神，以完成他们精诚所至的事业；我们在此下定最大的决心，以不让死者白白牺牲；让这个国家在上帝的保佑下获得自由的新生；让这个民有、民治、民享的政府与世长存。

阿伯拉罕林肯
1863年11月19日

Quotations of Abraham Lincoln

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

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.

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.

Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.

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

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.

In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.

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.

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.

Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable - a most sacred right - a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world.

Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.

Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.

A friend is one who has the same enemies as you have.

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 by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.

The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.

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

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.

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.

A house divided against itself cannot stand.

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?

Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.

The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read.