“Understanding the spirit of our institutions to aim at the elevation of men, I am opposed to whatever tends to degrade them.”

— Abraham Lincoln, Letter to Dr. Theodore Canisius (17 May 1859)

About Abraham Lincoln

1809 – 1865

Sixteenth President of the United States, who led the nation through the Civil War and issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

“The better part of one's life consists of his friendships.”

“Let them adopt the maxim, "Better luck next time"; and then, by renewed exertion, make that better luck for themselves.”

“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital.”

“If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces.”

“Always take the short cut; and that is the rational one. Therefore say and do everything according to soundest reason.”

“The young have exalted notions, because they have not been humbled by life or learned its necessary limitations.”

“Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.”

“I assert that the cosmic religious experience is the strongest and noblest driving force behind scientific research.”

“There is no logical path to these laws; only intuition, resting on sympathetic understanding of experience, can reach them.”