"All I have learned, I learned from books," declared Abraham Lincoln — and this book offers ample learning from the sixteenth president's wise and often witty remarks. Drawn from speeches, letters, and other sources, these thoughts and opinions range from considerations of human nature and spirituality to the burdens and privileges of the presidency along with many other topics of enduring interest. Selections include comments on morality ("It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.") and the pursuit of happiness ("Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.") as well as friendship ("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."), human frailty ("It's not me who can’t keep a secret. It's the people I tell that can't."), and other thought-provoking subjects. "All I have learned, I learned from books," declared Abraham Lincoln—and this book offers ample learning from the sixteenth president's wise and often witty remarks. Drawn from speeches, letters, and other sources, these thoughts and opinions range from considerations of human nature and spirituality to the burdens and privileges of the presidency along with many other topics of enduring interest. Selections include comments on morality ("It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.") and the pursuit of happiness ("Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.") as well as friendship ("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."), human frailty ("It's not me who can’t keep a secret. It's the people I tell that can't."), and other thought-provoking subjects. An English professor at the City University of New York's Kingsborough College, Bob Blaisdell is the editor of numerous Dover Thrift Editions and many other books. He has published essays about his experiences as a teacher and regularly reviews books for the San Francisco Chronicle and the Christian Science Monitor. Lincoln A Book of Quotations By Bob Blaisdell Dover Publications, Inc. Copyright © 2016 Dover Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-486-80607-5 Contents America, 1, Education and Advice for the Young, 4, Faith, Morality, and "God's Will", 9, Fathers and Sons, 17, His Own Life and Character, 19, Law and the Constitution, 27, Politics, 36, Politicians: Henry Clay, Stephen Douglas, and Zachary Taylor, 54, The Presidency, 63, Reading and Writing, 82, Secession, 85, Slavery, Equality, and the Emancipation Proclamation, 93, Speech-Making, 110, Storytelling, 114, The War and His Generals, 116, Women and Marriage, 147, Appendix: Remarks on Abraham Lincoln by His Contemporaries, 151, Bibliography, 169, CHAPTER 1 America We find ourselves in the peaceful possession of the fairest portion of earth as regards extent of territory, fertility of soil, and salubrity of climate. We find ourselves under the government of a system of political institutions conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty than any of which the history of former times tells us. We, when mounting the stage of existence, found ourselves the legal inheritors of these fundamental blessings. We toiled not in the acquirement of establishment of them — they are a legacy bequeathed us by a once hardy, brave, and patriotic but now lamented and departed race of ancestors. Theirs was a task (and nobly they performed it) to possess themselves, and through themselves, us, of this goodly land; and to up rear upon its hills and valleys a political edifice of liberty and equal rights; 'tis ours only, to transmit these, the former, unprofaned by the foot of an invader; the latter, undecayed by the lapse of time and untorn by usurpation, to the latest generation that fate shall permit the world to know. — "The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions": Address before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, January 27, 1838 * * * 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 Buonaparte 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. — "The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions": Address before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, Ja