Lincoln Quote

Oregon Voters' Pamphlet | 1860s | Abraham Lincoln

[tje]

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage-earner by pulling down the wage-payer. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn. You cannot build character and courage by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.

Abraham Lincoln

[tje]

This was provided by the Oregon Republican Party and is just as pertinent today as it was when he stated it.

I came across this while reading the pamphlet today and thought others might find it as inspiring as I did.

t

[Commander8]

I have the "Ten Cannot-ments" on my wall.

[tje]

There are 10? I only count 7 here. What's missing?

[Commander8]

I guess it is only 7.

[mdittmar]

Another Lincoln quote for Memorial Day,for all those that have served and are serving now to keep us free.

"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.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate - we cannot consecrate - we cannot hallow - this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these 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, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

[Restorer]

True sentiments. Unfortunately, there is no evidence Lincoln ever said them.

http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/cannot.htm

[A. Morgan]

	You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
	You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
	You cannot help the wage-earner by pulling down the wage-payer.
	You cannot further the brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred.
	You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
	You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
	You cannot build character and courage by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.

[Non-Sequitur]

My own personal Lincoln favorite:

How then shall we perform it? At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years.

At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. 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.

This speech was given in 1838 when Lincoln was in his late twenties and seems to forshadow the war that was to come 23 years later.

[Harp]

That's not Lincoln.

The Ten "You Cannots" Abraham Lincoln Did Not Say

And, no, the Lincoln-haters can't blame Lincoln for the confusion. They'll have to do their "dig him up and shoot him again" routine for something else.

[Cagey]

They'll have to do their "dig him up and shoot him again" routine for something else.

LOL

[IronJack]

I would add "You cannot borrow yourself out of debt."

[tje]

Thanks for the clarification...

t

[Restorer]

"You cannot borrow yourself out of debt."

Well, actually you can. In a hyper-inflation, those who borrow money and use it to purchase hard assets and retain ownership till after the inevitable crash can do very well indeed.

[mass55th]

My Lincoln favorite:

"If I were two faced, would I be wearing this one?"----Abe Lincoln (1809-1865)

[ravinson]

I don't know whether Lincoln said any of those things, but I do know what one of the Supreme Court justices he appointed stated in denying the Constitutionality of a graduated income tax:

"Whenever a distinction is made in the burdens a law imposes or in the benefits it confers on any citizens by reason of their birth, or wealth, or religion, it is class legislation, and leads inevitably to oppression and abuses, and to general unrest and disturbance in society. It was hoped and believed that the great amendments to the Constitution which followed the late civil war had rendered such legislation impossible for all future time." Justice Stephen J. Field, Separate opinion in Pollock v. Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, 157 U.S. 429 (1895)

[WhiskeyPapa]

A lady once told Lincoln that he was ugly.

"I am sorry, Ma'am, but I can't help the way I look," he said.

She said, "Well, you could stay home!"

Walt