Insightful - Memorable Quotes For the 'Journey'

- Albert Schweitzer -

Albert Schweitzer was quite critical of what he saw in the World in the 1950's. As a result, a journalist once sardonically asked if he saw himself as an 'optimist' or as a 'pessimist.' He answered without hesitation, "For all that I have seen I am a pessimist. But my willing and hoping are optimistic."

- Albert Schweitzer -

"The world that we have made, as a result of the thinking we have done thus far, creates problems for us, that we cannot solve at the level we created them. A new kind of thinking is essential if humanity is to transcend these problems at a level of consciousness that is more enlightened than the mind which gave rise to them."

- Albert Einstein -
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Niels Bohr was describing the profound impact which Einstein's Theory of Relativity has had on the World. In describing the subsequent revelations and implications involved Bohr wrote, "It turns out that the universe is not only queerer than we believed, it is queerer than we are capable of believing."

- The Universe and Dr. Einstein -
by Lincoln Barnette

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"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre
minds."
- Albert Einstein -

"If you're not in the lead, the view always looks the same."

"Why is the ocean Master of a thousand rivers?" "Because it lies below them."
-- Lao Tsu, "The Tao Te Ching" --
-- Lesson in Humility --

"The greatest use of Life, is to spend it for something that will outlast it."

"You will know the advancement or decline of a civilization by its treatment of the animals."
-- Mahatma Gandhi --

"The chief difference between a man and a dog is that when you feed a dog, he won't bite you."
. . . The Wit & Wisdom of Mark Twain

FROM A GREAT ZEN MASTER TO THE ASPIRING YOGI SEEKING ENLIGHTENMENT

"What you are looking for is what is looking."
. . . "Ask the Awakened", by Wie Wu Wie

"Man is thus his own greatest mystery. He does not understand the
vast veiled universe into which he has been cast for the reason that
he does not understand himself. He comprehends but little of his
organic processes and even less of his unique capacity to perceive
the world about him, to reason and to dream. Least of all does he
understand his noblest and most mysterious faculty: the ability to
transcend himself and perceive himself in the act of perception."

. . . "THE UNIVERSE AND DR. EINSTEIN" . . . by Lincoln Barnett (Einstein wrote the Forward to this book, praising it as one of the most enlightened works he'd ever seen, relating to his Theories).

MTD: . . "Life is a Journey, not a Destination. It is the Quality of the Journey that will be the Measure of Your Life."

Sir John Harrington quote- "Treason doth never prosper- What's the reason? Why, if it prosper, none dare call it treason."

The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be
pretty sure they're going to have some pretty annoying virtues.
-- Mark Twain --

The Earth is not an inheritance from our ancestors but a loan from our children.
-- WWF --

"God gave men brains larger than dogs so they wouldn't hump women's legs at cocktail parties." -- [Angelina Jolie from Hackers] --

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'When a man lies, he murders some part of the world'
Merlin, in the John Boorman film - Excalibur

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Isaiah 11:6-9 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. Isiah 11:6

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Isaiah, chapter 11
Isaiah 11:6-9

6: The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
7: And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8: And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den.
9: They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

Isaiah, chapter 11
Isaiah 11:6-9

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Don't get me wrong. I'm not afraid of dying. I just don't want to be there when it happens.

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Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die to get there.

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A theft against one person is a theft against every person, each and all of us. We are interconnected. The theft is committed against the whole of humanity and the whole of humanity is all the more impoverished by it, for it is left with something less than it had before.

-- Leo Tolstoy --
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A goal is like a star. The point is not that we must reach it, but rather that we use it as a guide and a compass to keep us on the right path.

-- Leo Tolstoy --
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Bobby Kennedy said his favorite poet was Aeschylus and he quoted his favorite lines from Aeschylus to soothe a stricken black audience in Indianapolis a few hours after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated

We who learn must suffer, And even in our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls, drop by drop upon our hearts until, in our dispair, against our will, Comes wisdom to us by the awful Grace of God.

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Both Robert and Ted did it with language. At the 1964 Democratic Convention, Robert quoted Shakespeare to set his slain older brother in his proper niche:

"When he shall die, take him and cut him into little stars/And he shall make the face of Heaven so shine/That all the world shall be in love with night...."

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even his startling statement, on emerging from a mine shaft in the ocean floor off Chile, where the miners had all been Communists: "If I worked in this mine, I'd be a Communist, too." And a resonant passage from Hemingway, before Papa ate his gun:

"Robert F. Kennedy: A Memoir,"

If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them or break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks everyone, and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break, it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too, but there will be no special hurry.

This was the sometimes mood of "Robert F. Kennedy: A Memoir," after MLK's assassination.

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Actually, Bobby said his favorite poet was Aeschylus, for the tragedy.

And, from Aeschylus, his favorite lines:

"We who learn must suffer
And even in our sleep,
pain that cannot forget falls,
drop by drop upon our hearts until,
in our dispair, against our will,
Comes wisdom to us
by the awful Grace of God."

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When a liar is confronted with the Truth he calls it a lie. When he utters a lie, he calls it the Truth. Hence, when a government has thus corrupted itself, it not only alienates itself from The People, it divorces itself from Reality as we know it.

Ingred Rothstetter
"Sirens in the Meadow"

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Most of what matters in your Life takes place in your absence.

Salmon Rushdie
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A man's character is his fate.

Your character is your destiny.

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There is no sound, no word, no plea in the entire World that can be heard, until someone listens.

Walk the Green Mile
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All the old flames leap up from the ashes.

"Copenhagen"
Niels Bohr Reunion with Werner Heisenberg

Copenhagen, Michael Frayn's Tony Award-winning drama, revolves around a 1941 meeting between two brilliant physicists, Niels Bohr of Denmark and Germany's Werner Heisenberg, longtime friends whose work together had opened the way to the atomic bomb, but who were now on opposite sides of World War II. The production stars Stephen Rea, Daniel Craig and Francesca Annis and is directed by Howard Davies.

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Boswell once asked Samuel Johnson, "What do you do when you meet someone who denies that they are bound by the moral law?" Johnson replied, "I bid them goodnight and then I count the spoons."

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Always tell the truth; then you don't have to remember anything.

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MARK TWAIN QUOTES

A good lie will have traveled half way around the world while the truth is still putting on her boots.

You take the lies out of him, and he'll shrink to the size of your hat; you take the malice out of him, and he'll disappear.

The history of the race, and each individual's experience, are thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal.

God made the Idiot for practice, and then He made the School Board.

In the real world, the right thing never happens in the right place and the right time. It is the job of journalists and historians to make it appear that it has.

History may not repeat itself, but it does rhyme a lot.

A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining and wants it back the minute it begins to rain.

... an experienced, industrious, ambitious, and quite often picturesque liar.

"Be Yourself" is about the worst advice you can give to people.

The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year.

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.

It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.

Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to.

If a man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat.

The very ink with which all history is written is merely fluid prejudice.

When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not; but my faculties are decaying now and soon I shall be so I cannot remember any but the things that never happened. It is sad to go to pieces like this but we all have to do it.

Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform.

Be good and you will be lonesome.

Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.
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The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane.
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Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with.

Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.

Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.

Drawing on my fine command of language, I said nothing.

Let us endeavour to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.

Wagner's music is better than it sounds.

Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned.

Why is it that people rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the people involved.

The man who does not read books has no advantage over the man that can not read them.

Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.

The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot.

Love your enemy, it will scare the hell out of them.

The institution of royalty in any form is an insult to the human race.

The history of the race, and each individual's experience, are thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal.

When whole races and peoples conspire to propagate gigantic mute lies in the interest of tyrannies and shams, why should we care anything about the trifling lies told by individuals?

Virtue was never as respectable as money.

Sacred cows make the best hamburger.

We have the best government in the world... that money can buy.

For in a Republic, who is "the country?" Is it the Government which is for the moment in the saddle? Why, the Government is merely a servant- merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them.

In times of change, the Patriot is a scarce man; brave, hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a Patriot.

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A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself. > Josh Billings

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. > Will Rogers

The average dog is a nicer person than the average person. > Andy Rooney

Dogs love their friends and bite their enemies, quite unlike people, who are incapable of pure love and always have to mix love and hate. > Sigmund Freud

If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons. > James Thurber

Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea. > Robert Heinlein

The reason a dog has so many friends is that he wags his tail instead of his tongue. > Anonymous

Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful. > Ann Landers

There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face. > Ben Williams

We give dogs time we can spare, space we can spare and love we can spare. And in return, dogs give us their all. It's the best deal man has ever made. > M. Facklam

I wonder what goes through his mind when he sees us peeing in his water bowl. > Penny Ward Moser

A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance, and to turn around three times before lying down. > Robert Benchley

I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religious cult. > Rita Rudner

Dogs need to sniff the ground; it's how they keep abreast of current events. The ground is a giant dog newspaper, containing all kinds of late-breaking dog news items, which, if they are especially urgent, are often continued in the next yard. > Dave Barry

Anybody who doesn't know what soap tastes like never washed a dog. > Franklin P. Jones

My dog is worried about the economy because Alpo is up to $3.00 a can. That's almost $21.00 in dog money. > Joe Weinstein

Outside of a dog, a book is probably man's best friend; inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. > Groucho Marx

Ever consider what they must think of us? I mean, here we come back from a grocery store with the most amazing haul - chicken, pork, half a cow. They must think we're the greatest hunters on earth! > Ann Tyler

"The more people I meet the more I like my cat."
--Anonymous

"I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul."
--Jean Cocteau

"By associating with the cat one only risks becoming richer."
--Colette

"Cats are designated friends."
--Norman Corwin

"The smallest feline is a masterpiece."
--Leonardo Da Vinci

"Cat: A pygmy lion who loves mice, hates dogs, and patronizes human beings."
--Oliver Herford

"Thou art the Great Cat, the avenger of the Gods, and the judge of words, and the president of the sovereign chiefs and the governor of the holy Circle; thou art indeed...the Great Cat."
--Inscription on the Royal Tombs at Thebes

"I've met many thinkers and many cats, but the wisdom of cats is infinitely superior."
--Hippolyte Taine

"Prowling his own quiet backyard or asleep by the fire, he is still only a whisker away from the wilds."
--Jean Burden

"An ordinary kitten will ask more questions than any five year old."
--Carl Van Vechten

"If cats could talk, they wouldn't."
--Nan Porter

"There are no ordinary cats."
--Colette

"Of all God's creatures, there is only one that cannot be made the slave of the lash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with a cat it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat."
--Mark Twain

"The cat has too much spirit to have no heart."
--Ernest Menaul

"Cat people are different, to the extent that they generally are not conformists. How could they be, with a cat running their lives?"
--Louis J. Camuti, DVM

"Like a graceful vase, a cat, even when motionless, seems to flow."
--George F. Will

"Cats are smarter than dogs. You can't get eight cats to pull a sled through snow."
--Jeff Valdez

"Cats know how to obtain food without labor, shelter without confinement, and love without penalties."
--W.L. George

"There is, indeed, no single quality of the cat that man could not emulate to his advantage."
--Carl Van Vechten

"Cats are rather delicate creatures and they are subject to a good many different ailments, but I have never heard of one who suffered from insomnia."
--Joseph Wood Krutch

"Unlike us, cats never outgrow their delight in cat capacities, nor do they settle finally for limitations. Cats, I think, live out their lives fulfilling their expectations."
--Irving Townsend

"It is difficult to obtain the friendship of a cat. It is a philosophical animal...one that does not place its affections thoughtlessly."
--Theophile Gautier

"A cat's got her own opinion of human beings. She don't say much, but you can tell enough to make you anxious not to hear the whole of it."
--Jerome K. Jerome

"The little furry buggers are just deep, deep wells you throw all your emotions into."
--Bruce Schimmel

"There's no need for a piece of sculpture in a home that has a cat."
--Wesley Bates

"If a cat spoke, it would say things like, 'Hey, I don't see the problem here.'"
--Roy Blount, Jr.

"The smart cat doesn't let on that he is."
--H. G. Frommer

"In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods, they have never forgotten this."
--Unknown

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"Never argue with an idiot.
They drag you down to their level, then beat you with experience."

Aristotle vividly described the genesis of the downfall of every great civilization as, "The insolence of demagogues in pursuit of power for all of the wrong reasons, leading to a Devil's Bargain to achieve power."

World-Renowned Historian
David McCullough

Note: George Wallace in 1972 Democratic Primary landslide in which Wallace won every single Florida county, admittedly at the height of Wallace's racist political career.
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"Life is not measured by the breaths we take but
by the moments that take our breath away."

LINCOLN QUOTES

For all that is not known of death and beyond, this much is certain. It will reflect the environment each of us has created here. If it be poisoned with malice, so too shall it be there. How do we know this. Because in Death and thereafter, such will be the only topography posted in the legend, the only image emblazened on the maps which we drafted for a journey that is defined by the compass and maps we, ourselves, have made.
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Even as the Union pushed westward and signs pointed to its perpetuity, internal forces were pulling it apart and the politics of exclusion reigned. Home again, after suffering defeat in his first Senate bid, Lincoln condemned such exclusion in words to an old friend:

"Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid_As a nation, we began by declaring that 'all men are created equal.' We now practically read it 'all men are created equal, except negroes.' When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read 'all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.' When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some other country where they make no pretense of loving liberty_where despotism can be taken pure, without the base alloy of hypocrisy."
Exemplifying this state of affairs, the interference of the nativist American Party ("Know-Nothings") caused construction of the monument to George Washington to grind to a halt after only seven years.

Debates raged throughout the 1850's over whether or not and, if so, how, the institution of slavery would extend into new states. In 1858, Lincoln declared his belief that "each individual is naturally entitled to do as he pleases with himself and the fruits of his labor," so long as what he does "in no way interferes with any other man's rights."

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ABRAHAM LINCOLN QUOTES

Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation we began by declaring that "all men are created equal." We now practically read it "all men are created equal, except negroes." When the Know-Nothings, get control, it will read "all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners and catholics." When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty- to Russia where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.

-- Abraham Lincoln --

The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume II, "Letter to Joshua F. Speed" (August 24, 1855), p. 323.

NOTE: All page references to The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln refer to the 1953 edition published by the Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey.

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"If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what's said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference." The Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln: Six Months at the White House by Francis B. Carpenter (University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, Nebraska, 1995), pp. 258-259.

"Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume III, "Letter To Henry L. Pierce and Others" (April 6, 1859), p. 376.

"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume II, (August 1, 1858?), p. 532.

"Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it." Lincoln's Cooper Institute Address, February 27, 1860.

"I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume II, "Speech at Chicago, Illinois" (July 10, 1858), p. 502.

"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume V, "Letter to Horace Greeley" (August 22, 1862), p. 388.

"Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them." Lincoln and the Civil War In the Diaries and Letters of John Hay selected by Tyler Dennett (Da Capo Press, New York, 1988), p. 143.

"I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day." Lincoln Observed: The Civil War Dispatches of Noah Brooks edited by Michael Burlingame (Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1998), p. 210.

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." Lincoln's First Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1861.

"I cannot make it better known than it already is that I strongly favor colonization." Lincoln's Second Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862.

"I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume VII, "Letter to Albert G. Hodges" (April 4, 1864), p. 281.

"In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free - honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just - a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless." Lincoln's Second Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862.

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan - to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations." Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865.

"A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half-slave and half-free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other." Lincoln's 'House-Divided' Speech in Springfield, Illinois, June 16, 1858.

"Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came." Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865.

"I am rather inclined to silence, and whether that be wise or not, it is at least more unusual nowadays to find a man who can hold his tongue than to find one who cannot." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume IV, "Remarks at the Monogahela House" (February 14, 1861), p. 209.

"Fourscore 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." Lincoln's Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863.

"Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume III, "Lincoln-Douglas debate at Ottawa" (August 21, 1858), p. 27.

"...that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863.

"I have never studied the art of paying compliments to women; but I must say that if all that has been said by orators and poets since the creation of the world in praise of women were applied to the women of America, it would not do them justice for their conduct during this war. I will close by saying, God bless the women of America!" The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume VII, "Remarks at Closing of Sanitary Fair, Washington D.C." (March 18, 1864), p. 254.

"I have not permitted myself, gentlemen, to conclude that I am the best man in the country; but I am reminded, in this connection, of a story of an old Dutch farmer who remarked to a companion once that 'it was not best to swap horses while crossing streams'." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume VII, "Reply to Delegation from the National Union League" (June 9, 1864), p. 384.

"Whenever I hear any one arguing for slavery I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume VIII, "Speech to One Hundred Fortieth Indiana Regiment" (March 17, 1865), p. 361.

"The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just; it shall not deter me." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume I, "Speech on the Sub-Treasury" (in the Illinois House of Representatives, December 26, 1839), p. 178.

"Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done today." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume II, "Notes for a Law Lecture" (July 1, 1850?), p. 81.

"In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume VII, "Reply to Loyal Colored People of Baltimore upon Presentation of a Bible" (September 7, 1864), p. 542.

"Property is the fruit of labor...property is desirable...is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume VII, "Reply to New York Workingmen's Democratic Republican Association" (March 21, 1864), pp. 259-260.

"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country." Lincoln's Second Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862.

"My friends, no one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of the Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell." Lincoln's Farewell Address at the Great Western Depot in Springfield, Illinois, February 11, 1861.

"Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser - in fees, expenses, and waste of time. As a peacemaker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume II, "Notes for a Law Lecture" (July 1, 1850?), p. 81.

"I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races - that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume III, "Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois" (September 18, 1858), pp. 145-146.

"I have stepped out upon this platform that I may see you and that you may see me, and in the arrangement I have the best of the bargain." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume IV, "Remarks at Painesville, Ohio" (February 16, 1861), p. 218.

The demon of intemperance ever seems to have delighted in sucking the blood of genius and of generosity. Lincoln's Temperance Address, Springfield, Illinois, February 22, 1842.

"The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible that God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party - and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect His purpose." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume V, "Meditation on the Divine Will" (September 2, 1862?), pp. 403-404.

"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." Lincoln's First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861.

"What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried?" Lincoln's Cooper Institute Address, February 27, 1860.

"We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others, the same word many mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name - liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names - liberty and tyranny." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume VII, "Address at Sanitary Fair, Baltimore, Maryland" (April 18, 1864), p. 301-302.

"There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume I, "Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum, of Springfield, Illinois (January 27, 1838), p. 113.

"In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to 'preserve, protect, and defend it'." Lincoln's First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861.

"I happen temporarily to occupy this big White House. I am living witness that any one of your children may look to come here as my father's child has." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume VII, "Speech to One Hundred Sixty-sixth Ohio Regiment (August 22, 1864), p. 512.

"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 Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume I, "Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum,of Springfield, Illinois (January 27, 1838), p. 109.

"I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume VI, "Proclamation of Thanksgiving" (October 3, 1863), p. 497.

"I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts, that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume VIII, "Letter to Mrs. Lydia Bixby" (November 21, 1864), pp. 116-117.

"It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: 'And this, too, shall pass away.' How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!" The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume III, "Address Before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, Milwaukee, Wisconsin" (September 30, 1859), pp. 481-482.

"If all do not join now to save the good old ship of the Union this voyage nobody will have a chance to pilot her on another voyage." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume IV, "Speech at Cleveland, Ohio" (February 15, 1861), p. 216.

"Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes." Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865.

"I am not a Know-Nothing. That is certain. How could I be? How can any one who abhors the oppression of negroes, be in favor of degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that "all men are created equal." We now practically read it "all men are created equal, except Negroes." When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal, except Negroes and foreigners and Catholics." When it comes to this, I shall prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty - to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure and without the base alloy of hypocrisy." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume II, "Letter to Joshua F. Speed" (August 24, 1855), p. 323.

NOTE: All page references to The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln refer to the 1953 edition published by the Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Several good single volume sources of authenticated Lincoln quotes are: (1) Recollected Words of Abraham Lincoln compiled and edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher and Virginia Fehrenbacher. (2) The "Quotable" Lincoln: A Selection from the Writings and Speeches of Abraham Lincoln compiled and edited by Edward Steers, Jr. (3) A Treasury of Lincoln Quotations edited by Fred Kerner. (4) Of the People, By the People, For the People and other Quotations from Abraham Lincoln edited by Gabor S. Boritt. (5) Abe Lincoln Laughing: Humorous Anecdotes from Original Sources by and about Abraham Lincoln edited by P.M. Zall.
The Lincoln drawing at the top of the page is from The Handbook of Early Advertising Art by Clarence P. Hornung.

RELATED LINKS

I can't tell you what 'compassion' is, but I know it when I see it and feel it. And what you see here most definitely is a manifestation of it.

http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,47924775001_1934328,00.html

Cat Video Worth Seeing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wvo-g_JvURI

Woman Raises Orphan Squirrels

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2009/11/26/fl.orphan.squirrel.new.baynews9

Kangaroo Foster Parents

http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,47924775001_1934328,00.html

Kangaroo Love:

http://www.gbruce.com/kangaroo_love.html

Famous Cat Quotes

http://www.gbruce.com/cat_quotes.html

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If there are no animals in Heaven, then when I die, I want to go where they go.

Life is not measured by the breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away.

"It is a more complex decision to live your life, rather than let your life happen to you.There are always more reasons to not get involved."

"Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak."

-- Claire Leahy Tweet --

"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened."

-- Anatole France --

"Awareness of impermanence and appreciation of our human potential will give us a sense of urgency that we must use every precious moment."

-- Dalai Lama Tweet --

"If #BP ever decides 2 sell tuna fish, it probably will B dolphin free - but will certainly be packed in oil not fresh water."

-- Lost Pets Tweet --

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"Fear less; hope more. Eat less; chew more. Talk less; say more. Hate less; love more."

- Pauline Phillips (Pen name "Abigail Van Buren" - "Dear Abbey"

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We are confronted with a dilemma that inhibits our ability to actually learn 'New Things.' This is because We listen comparatively. That is, we compare what we hear with what we already 'know' ... what we already believe. That which does not comport is discarded. All listening of this type obviously prevents us from listening.

- J. Krishnamurti -
"Talks With American Students"

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"It seemed incredible to me, that physical courage should be so commonplace and revered, while moral courage . . . is so rare and despised."