Framing the Dialogue

Only to better express myself…

Abraham Lincoln

A few days ago some of us acknowledged the birth (February 12, 1809) of President Abraham Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln may be the most written about figure in the brief history of the United States and I have read quite a few of the volumes. Lincoln is an intriguing figure, but one thing I find most interesting is how he used anecdotes to get his point across. This was highlighted in a book Lincoln On Leadership and illustrated in the recent Lincoln movie starring Daniel Day Lewis. Here are some of my favorite Lincoln quote to honor the man.

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

“What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling sea coasts, our army and our navy. These are not our reliance against tyranny. All of those may be turned against us without making us weaker for the struggle. Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in us. Our defense is in the spirit which prized liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands everywhere.”

 “And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.”

“Three things make up a nation: its land, its people, and its laws.”

“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 their revolutionary right to dismember it or overthrow it.”

“We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing.”

 “We, the People are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts; not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow men who pervert the Constitution.”

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

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

“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crises. The great point is to bring them the real facts.”

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

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

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

“Fourscore 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.”

“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.”

“I can make more generals, but horses cost money.”

“The assertion that ‘all men are created equal’ was of no practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain and it was placed in the Declaration not for that, but for future use.”

“The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.”

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

“You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.”

One has to wonder what might have been with this great man.