Politicians are a set of men who have interests aside from the interests of the people and who, to say the most of them, are, taken as a mass, at least one long step removed from honest men
More Quotes from Abraham Lincoln:
Gentlemen, suppose all the property you were worth was in gold, and you had put it in the hands of Blondin to carry across the Niagara River on a rope, would you shake the cable, or keep shouting out to him - 'Blondin, stand up a little straighter - Blondin, stoop a little more - go a little faster - lean a little more to the north - lean a little more to the south' No, you would hold your breath as well as your tongue, and keep your hands off until he was safe over. The Government are carrying an immense weight. Untold treasures are in their hands. They are doing the very best they can. Don't badger them. Keep silence, and we'll get you safe across. -Francis B. Carpenter, 'Anecdotes and Reminiscences of President Lincoln' in Henry Jarvis Raymond, The Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln..., p. 752 (1865). Carpenter, a portrait artist, lived in the White House for six months beginning February 1864, to paint the president and the entire Cabinet. His relations with the president became of an 'intimate character,' and he was permitted 'the freedom of his private office at almost all hours,...privileged to see and know more of his daily life' than most people. He states that he 'endeavored to embrace only those anecdotes which bear the marks of authenticity. Many.... I myself heard the President relate others were communicated to me by persons who either heard or took part in them' (p. 725). Blondin (real name Jean Francois Gravelet) was a French tightrope walker who crossed Niagara Falls on a tightrope in 1855, 1859, and 1860Abraham Lincoln
You may deceive all the people part of the time, and part of the people all the time, but not all the people all the time.
Abraham Lincoln
Singular indeed the people should be writhing under oppression and injury, and yet not one among them to be found, to raise the voice of complaint
Abraham Lincoln
As an individual who undertakes to live by borrowing, soon finds his original means devoured by interest, and next no one left to borrow from so must it be with a government.
Abraham Lincoln
When someone asked Abraham Lincoln, after he was elected president, what he was going to do about his enemies, he replied, 'I am going to destroy them. I am going to make them my friends.'
Abraham Lincoln
Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new at all.
Abraham Lincoln
Readers Who Like This Quotation Also Like:
Based on Topics: Man Quotes, People Quotes, Politics QuotesI do give a great deal of forethought and zone in on character and all sorts of things like that. Never before have I just stuffed something away in the back cupboard of my brain because it was just such a crazy concept.
Greg Kinnear
I like the X-Men, otherwise I wouldn't be doing it.
Matthew Vaughn
It's my memory, and what happened between that moment 10 or 15 years ago and now, there's a lot of gray area.
Tracey Emin