Quotation of the Day - 18 August 2004

[Mephisto2]

Mr Lincoln is certainly up there with Winston Churchill as probably one of the greatest statesmen the world has seen.

When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion.

Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865) - 16th president of US

Mr Mephisto

[k1ng]

Thanks for posting these quotes. I don't always have a comment for them, but I do enjoy reading them!

[unoaman]

Thanks again Mr. M.
So very, very hard to choose. I suppose it sort of depends on the mood you are in when deciding...

This subject has somewhat been on my mind lately, and just jumped out at me...


"Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed."
-- August 21, 1858 - Lincoln-Douglas debate at Ottawa

[Mephisto2]

Thank you both for your kind comments.

Unoaman, you're absolutely right. The quotations I choose very much depend upon my mood. Sometimes I have to resist some of the more political ones! :-)

Mr Mephisto

[orphen]

ahh wasn't he atheist? Lincoln that is

[unoaman]

You know Orphen, I don't know offhand, and I was a history major. I don't really remember that ever being mentioned.

At any rate, atheist or not, the quotation offered by Mr. M appears to me to be damn good words to live by.

[Averett]

Originally Posted by orphen

ahh wasn't he atheist? Lincoln that is

I'm not sure if he was or not either. But the quote may have been in response to somebody asking about his religion. And this was his answer. And a good one at that

[Gabbyness]

That is a pretty quick-witted response, and I do think I remember hearing that Lincoln did not prescribe to organized religion, but I may have just made that up.

[FaderMonkey]

That's an awesome quote. Thanks Mr Mephisto!

[Mephisto2]

Originally Posted by orphen

ahh wasn't he atheist? Lincoln that is

Almost certainly not.

He very often referred to God in his speeches. I'm sure, that like 99% of his contemporaries, he believed in some "higher being"; perhaps just not traditional organized religion.

Let me see if I can dig some more references up.

Mr Mephisto

[Mephisto2]

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations.

"Mr. Lincoln's maxim and philosophy were: 'What is to be, will be, and no prayers of ours can arrest the decree.' He never joined any Church. He was a religious man always, I think, but was not a technical Christian."

Mary Todd Lincoln in William Herndon's Religion of Lincoln, quoted from Franklin Steiner, The Religious Beleifs of Our Presidents, p. 118

With firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us finish the work we are in...to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves.

I regard no man as poor who has a godly mother.

I'm sure there is more.

Perhaps this is the most telling...

here was the strangest combination of church influence against me. Baker is a Campbellite; and therefore, as I suppose with few exceptions, got all of that Church. My wife had some relations in the Presbyterian churches, and some in the Episcopal churches; and therefore, wherever it would tell, I was set down as either one or the other, while it was everywhere contended that no Christian ought to vote for me because I belonged to no Church, and was suspected of being a Deist and had talked of fighting a duel.
-- Abraham Lincoln, letter to Martin M. Morris (March 26, 1843)

So he definitely didn't like organized religion... :-)


Mr Mephisto

[unoaman]

Theres another reason he was a good man...

[Strange Famous]

"I will say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races; that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people"

Abraham Lincoln 1858

(quoted by Howard Zinn)

Make of it what you will...

[Mephisto2]

Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain 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. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just - a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless.

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

You think slavery is right and should be extended; while we think slavery is wrong and ought to be restricted. That I suppose is the rub. It certainly is the only substantial difference between us.

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.

Make of it what you will.

I don't think anyone could honestly argue that Lincoln was pro-slavery. Remember, the Southern States seceded upon his election based entirely on his publicly known anti-slavery stance.

Oh, and here's one more for you...

Read my lips. No more taxes...

:-)

Mr Mephisto

[Strange Famous]

There's a difference between being pro slavery and being a racist. I personally believe Lincoln opposed slavery because it did not match the economic needs of the industrialised north, he wrapped up his case in moral language to win more people's backing... the quote I found didnt say he wanted blacks to be slaves, just that he thought they were inferior beings, and should be barred from enjoying most civil rights.