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.
The resources, advantages, and the powers of the American people are very great, and they have, consequently, succeed to equally great responsibilities.
- Topic: Power, Responsibility
- Photo: Jeffrey Benjamin
More Quotes from Abraham Lincoln
I wish no explanation made to our enemies. What they want is a squabble and a fuss; and that they can have if we explain; and they cannot have if we don’t.
The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act. . . . Plainly the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon the definition of liberty.
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My way of joking is to tell the truth. It is the funniest joke in the world.
An aspiration is a joy forever, a possession as solid as a landed estate, a fortune which we can never exhaust and which gives us year by year a revenue of pleasurable activity.
The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge in excess caused man to fall.
Everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. In the old days when we were a strong and happy people, all our power came to us from the sacred hoop of the nation, and so long as the hoop was unbroken the people flourished.
Self-control is strength. Right thought is mastery. Calmness is power.
I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.
We know of no culture that has said, articulately, that there is no difference between men and women except in the way they contribute to the creation of the next generation.
Man must cease attributing his problems to his environment, and learn again to exercise his will - his personal responsibility in the realm of faith and morals.
It is the responsibility of leadership to work intelligently with what is given, and not to waste time fantasizing about a world of flawless people and perfect choices.
Only when we realize that there is no eternal, unchanging truth or absolute truth can we arouse in ourselves a sense of intellectual responsibility.
Never trouble another for what you can do for yourself.
Men who reject the responsibility of thought and reason can only exist as parasites on the thinking of others.
The aim of art, the aim of a life can only be to increase the sum of freedom and responsibility to be found in every man and in the world. It cannot, under any circumstances, be to reduce or suppress that freedom, even temporarily.
Champions take responsibility. When the ball is coming over the net, you can be sure I want the ball.
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.
Those who enjoy responsibility usually get it; those who merely enjoy exercising authority usually lose it.
Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others.
