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Appearance
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Every person is responsible for his own looks after 40.
-Abraham Lincoln
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The President to-night has a dream: He was in a party of plain people, and, as it became known who he was, they began to comment on his appearance. One of them said: He is a very common-looking man. The President replied: The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is the reason he makes so many of them.
-Abraham Lincoln
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Belief
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You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.
-Abraham Lincoln
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Capitalism
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These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people.
-Abraham Lincoln
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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. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights.
-Abraham Lincoln
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Character
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Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.
-Abraham Lincoln
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We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.
-Abraham Lincoln
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Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
-Abraham Lincoln
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Charity
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With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us finish the work ;we are in.
-Abraham Lincoln
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Choice
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I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for the day.
-Abraham Lincoln
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Coffee (or Tea)
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If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.
-Abraham Lincoln, (attributed, no source)
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Common Sense
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When you have got an elephant by the hind legs and he is trying to run away, it's best to let him run.
-Abraham Lincoln
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Communication
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He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I ever met.
-Abraham Lincoln
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I fear explanations explanatory of things explained.
-Abraham Lincoln
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Those who write clearly have readers, those who write obscurely have commentators.
-Abraham Lincoln
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Confidence
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If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.
-Abraham Lincoln
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Conflict
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It is the eternal struggle between these two principles -- right and wrong. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time and will ever continue to struggle. It is the same spirit that says, You work and toil and earn bread, and I'll eat it.
-Abraham Lincoln
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Conservatism
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What is conservatism? It is not adherence to the old and tried, but against the new and untried?
-Abraham Lincoln
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Control
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Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes crimes out of things that are not crimes.
-Abraham Lincoln
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Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.
-Abraham Lincoln
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What I do say is that no man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent.
-Abraham Lincoln
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Corporations
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I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.
-Abraham Lincoln, quoted in Jack London's The Iron Heel
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Crime
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He reminds me of the man who murdered both his parents, and then when the sentence was about to be pronounced, pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was orphan.
-Abraham Lincoln
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Criticism
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If I care to listen to every criticism, let alone act on them, then this shop may as well be closed for all other businesses. I have learned to do my best, and if the end result is good then I do not care for any criticism, but if the end result is not good, then even the praise of ten angels would not make the difference.
-Abraham Lincoln
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If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how, the very best I can, and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.
-Abraham Lincoln
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Books by and about Abraham Lincoln