Abraham Lincoln

"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and, under a just God cannot retain it."

"Have I not destroyed my enemy when I have made him into my friend?"

"If frienship is your weakest point then you are the strongest person in the world."

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

"You can have anything you want if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose."

"Get books, sit yourself down anywhere, and go to reading them yourself."

"Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new after all."

"My Best Friend is a person who will give me a book I have not read."

"In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all; and, to the young, it comes with bitterest agony, because it takes them unawares. The older have learned to ever expect it. I am anxious to afford some alleviation of your present distress. Perfect relief is not possible, except with time. You can not now realize that you will ever feel better. Is not this so? And yet it is a mistake. You are sure to be happy again. To know this, which is certainly true, will make you some less miserable now. I have had experience enough to know what I say; and you need only to believe it, to feel better at once."

"As the patriots of seventy-six did to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and Laws, let every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor; – let every man remember that to violate the law, is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the character of his own, and his children's liberty. Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by every American mother, to the lisping babe, that prattles on her lap – let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; – let it be written in Primmers, spelling books, and in Almanacs; – let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation; and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues, and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars. While ever a state of feeling, such as this, shall universally, or even, very generally prevail throughout the nation, vain will be every effort, and fruitless every attempt, to subvert our national freedom."

"The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation is the philosophy of government in the next."

"A capacity, and taste, for reading, gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others. It is the key, or one of the keys, to the already solved problems. And not only so. It gives a relish, and facility, for successfully pursuing the [yet] unsolved ones."

"Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people can be engaged in."

"All I have learned, I learned from books."

"That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well."

"I'm a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn't have the heart to let him down."

"When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion."

"The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter usfrom the support of a cause we believe to be just."

"I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had no where else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day."

"It is difficult to make a man miserable while he feels worthy of himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him."