223 quotes
"They enslave their children's children who make compromise with sin."
The Present Crisis (1844)
This imputation of inconsistency is one to which every sound politician and every honest thinker must sooner or later subject himself. The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinion.
Toward no crimes have men shown themselves so cold-bloodedly cruel as in punishing differences in belief.
Literary Essays, vol. II (1870)
And folks are beginning to think it looks odd,
To choke a poor scamp for the glory of God.
A Fable for Critics (1848)
Let us be of good cheer, however, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never come.
Democracy and Other Addresses (1886)
For there's nothing we read of in torture's inventions,
Like a well-meaning dunce, with the best of intentions.
A Fable for Critics (1848)
Puritanism, believing itself quick with the seed of religious liberty, laid, without knowing it, the egg of democracy.
Literary Essays, vol. II (1870)
Though old the thought and oft exprest,
'Tis his at last who says it best.
Under the Willows and Other Poems (1869)
An' you've gut to git up airly
Ef you want to take in God.
The Biglow Papers (1848)
True freedom is to share
All the chains our brothers wear.
Stanzas on Freedom (1843)
A wise skepticism is the first attribute of a good critic.
Literary Essays, vol. III (1870)
The only faith that wears well and holds its color in all weathers, is that which is woven of conviction and set with the sharp mordant of experience.
Abraham Lincoln (1864)
Folks never understand the folks they hate.
The Biglow Papers (1848)
Truly there is a tide in the affairs of men; but there is no gulf-stream setting forever in one direction.
Literary Essays, vol. II (1870)
Skilled to pull wires he baffles nature's hope, who sure intended him to stretch a rope.
As one lamp lights another, nor grows less,
So nobleness enkindleth nobleness.
There is no better ballast for keeping the mind steady on its keel, and saving it from all risk of crankiness, than business.
Literary Essays, vol. II (1870)
A great man is made up of qualities that meet or make great occasions.
Darkness is strong, and so is Sin,
But only God endures forever!
Under the Willows and Other Poems (1869)
Aspiration sees only one side of every question; possession, many.