Abraham Lincoln quotes, verified

“If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”

Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois ("The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions"), 27 Jan 1838; Collected Works, ed. Basler, vol. 1, pp. 108-15

From a speech to the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, on 27 January 1838, when Lincoln was 28 and serving in the state legislature.

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“He notes the fall of a sparrow, and numbers the hairs of our heads; and He will not forget the dying man, who puts his trust in Him.”

Letter to John D. Johnston, Springfield, Illinois, 12 January 1851

From a letter Lincoln wrote in Springfield, Illinois, on 12 January 1851 to his stepbrother John D. Johnston, who had written that Lincoln's father was dying.

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

Speech at Kalamazoo, Michigan; reported in the Detroit Daily Advertiser, 29 Aug 1856; Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 2

Spoken at an open air Republican rally in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on 27 August 1856, and reported two days later in the Detroit Daily Advertiser.

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“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

Speech to the Illinois Republican State Convention, Springfield, 16 June 1858

Spoken in the Illinois state capitol in Springfield on 16 June 1858, as Lincoln accepted the Republican nomination for the United States Senate against Stephen Douglas.

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

Letter to Henry L. Pierce and others, 6 April 1859

From a letter dated 6 April 1859, in which Lincoln declined an invitation to a Boston festival marking Jefferson's birthday.

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“I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence.”

Speech in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 4 (1953), p. 240, 22 February 1861

Spoken inside Independence Hall in Philadelphia on 22 February 1861, Washington's Birthday, as Lincoln travelled to Washington for his inauguration.

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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.”

First Annual Message to Congress (State of the Union), 3 December 1861

From Lincoln's First Annual Message to Congress on 3 December 1861, eight months into the Civil War.

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“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.”

Annual Message to Congress (Second Annual Message), as printed in J. D. Richardson, A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1 December 1862

From the closing paragraph of Lincoln's written annual message to Congress, sent on 1 December 1862, a month before the Emancipation Proclamation took effect.

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“No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.”

Proclamation of Thanksgiving (Proclamation 106), Washington, D.C., 3 October 1863

From the proclamation Lincoln issued in Washington on 3 October 1863, setting apart the last Thursday of November as a national day of thanksgiving and praise.

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“From these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.”

Gettysburg Address, 19 November 1863

Spoken at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on 19 November 1863, four and a half months after the battle.

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“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.”

Address Delivered at the Dedication of the Cemetery at Gettysburg (Bliss copy), Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 7 (1953), 19 November 1863

The opening sentence of the address Lincoln gave at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on 19 November 1863.

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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.”

Second Inaugural Address, 4 March 1865

Spoken on the east portico of the United States Capitol on 4 March 1865, in Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address.

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