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- Famous Quotes from American History -
United States Quotes from the 1800s
Abraham Lincoln and the US Civil War

Abraham Lincoln 1809 - 1865

May 18, 1858
"To give victory to the right, not bloody bullets, but peaceful ballots only, are necessary."
(Usually quoted as: "The ballot is stronger than the bullet.")

June 16, 1858
"'A house divided against itself cannot stand.' I believe this government cannot endure permanently, half slave and half free."

December 1, 1862 - Annual Message to Congress
"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."

November 19, 1863 - Address at the Dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg
"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal ... We here highly resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

April 4, 1864
"I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me."

March 4, 1865 - Second Inaugural Address
"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."

"People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like."

"You may fool all the people some of the time: you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can't fool all of the people all the time."
(also attributed to Phineas Barnum)

"The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is why he makes so many of them." (attributed)

Reply to the South Carolina Commissioners
"As President, I have no eyes but constitutional eyes; I cannot see you." (attributed)

On meeting Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1852:
"So you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war!"

John Wilkes Boothe 1829 - 1865

"Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged."
('Sic semper tyrannis' or 'thus always to tyrants' is motto of the State of Virginia.)

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- Famous Quotes Throughout World History -

| Index of Quotes by Speaker / Historical Period |
| The Great Quotes of Ancient Greece |
| Profound Quotes of Ancient Rome - BC |
| Quotes from the Roman Empire - AD |
| Famous Quotes from the Dark and Middle Ages |
| Relevant Quotes from the Reformation and Renaissance |
| Quotes from England: 15th, 16th and 17th Centuries |
| Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution Quotes | Voltaire |
| Quotes from the French Revolution and Napoleon Era |
| Modern European History Quotes from the 1800s |
| Quotes from Europe and Asia - 1900s | Winston Churchill |

Famous Quotes from American History
| Benjamin Franklin | Quotes from America in the 1700s |
| Thomas Jefferson | United States Quotes from the 1800s |
| Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War | Mark Twain |
| American Quotes from the Early 1900s and World War I |
| US 20th-Century and World War II Quotes |
| Famous American Pop Culture Quotes |