100+ Powerful Abraham Lincoln Quotes on Slavery That Still Resonate Today

"If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong."

"I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong."

"Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature; opposition to it, in his love of justice."

"Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally."

"No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent."

"In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free—honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve."

"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."

"I have always hated slavery, I think as much as any abolitionist."

"Let us then turn this government back into the channel in which the framers of the Constitution originally placed it."

"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves."

"Justice is the constant and perpetual wish to render every man his due."

"We all declare for liberty, but in using the same word, we do not mean the same thing."

"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery."

"If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it."

"If I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it."

"If I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that."

"Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed."

"I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me."

"I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go."

"Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change public opinion can change the government."

"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."

"A house divided against itself cannot stand."

"I hold that the institution of slavery is founded on injustice and bad policy."

"While I remain in my present position, I shall not attempt to retract or modify the Emancipation Proclamation."

"All honor to Jefferson — to the man who, in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national independence, put the ring-bolt in the chain of his country's destiny."

"He was the first to endow the Declaration with almost sacred significance."

"I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence."

"The assertion that 'all men are created equal' was of no practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain."

"It was intended to set up a standard maxim for free society, which should be familiar to all and revered by all."

"It constantly looked forward to the time when slavery should be abolished everywhere."

"I believe the Bible is God's word because it teaches me the things that I feel within me to be true."

"No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent."

"The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty."

"We all agree that liberty is a great thing, but we differ greatly about what liberty is."

"The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do at all, or cannot so well do, for themselves."

"We should permit no man to be a judge in his own case, because his interest would certainly bias his judgment, and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity."

"I never thought the Emancipation Proclamation would free a single slave, but I issued it anyway."

"The Emancipation Proclamation was a stroke of necessity, not of mercy."

"It gave moral strength to our cause and weakened the enemy."

"Freedom is the right of all humanity."

"Those who intend the emancipation of the slaves must begin somewhere."

"We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it—and stop there."

"I am not concerned that you have fallen—I am concerned that you arise."

"To be sure, 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 promise of the Proclamation was not just legal—it was spiritual."

"Every step toward freedom strengthens the soul of the nation."

"Liberty is not perfect until it is shared by all."

"You may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can't fool all the people all the time."

"What constitutes the bulwark of our liberties and institutions? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling sea coasts, our army or navy."

"It is the general appreciation of the conflicting rights of man—the security each has in the possession of his own."

"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 as the destroyer of liberty."

"Of course I am not blind to the fact that some of the slaves are better off than many free men."

"But that does not justify the system."

"The owners of the slaves have their minds poisoned by the doctrine of self-interest."

"They defend what is indefensible by twisting reason and scripture."

"No man knows the value of freedom until he has fought for it."

"The slaveholder fears freedom more than he values justice."

"He clings to property that violates the very principles of property."

"Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well-wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolution never to surrender the ship of state to such hands."

"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."

"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."

"Yet the prayers of both could not be answered—that of neither has been answered fully."

"The Almighty has His own purposes."

"Fondly do we hope—fervently do we pray—that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away."

"Yet if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, so still it must be said 'the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'"

"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 achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

"If all earthly power were given me, I should not know what to do, as to the existing institution."

"My first impulse would be to free all the slaves, and send them to Liberia—to their own native land."

"But a moment’s reflection would convince me that whatever of high hope (as I think there is) there may be in this, in the long run, its sudden execution is impossible."

"What then? Free them all, and keep them among us as underlings? Is it quite fair for us so to dispose of them?"

"Free them, and make them politically and socially our equals? My own feelings will not admit of this."

"And if mine would, we well know that those of the great mass of white people will not."

"Whether this feeling accords with justice and sound morality, I leave others to decide."

"There is also the question of what to do with the freed slaves after emancipation."

"I have expressed my desire to see colonization commenced."

"It is a way both to remove the colored population from the United States and to improve their condition."

"I believe a colonization scheme could be beneficial if fairly administered."

"But it must be voluntary, not forced."

"The Constitution is not a living thing in and of itself, but it is meant to serve a living people."

"The Constitution allows for the suppression of insurrection and rebellion."

"I take no pleasure in the Constitution’s tolerance of slavery, but I respect its authority."

"The government must be preserved, even if temporary measures contradict old norms."

"I cannot let the Constitution destroy the nation it was meant to create."

"I view the Constitution as a framework for justice, not a shield for injustice."

"No man is above the law, and no man is below it."

"The Constitution neither established nor prohibited slavery; it compromised with it."

"But compromise has limits."

"When the ship of state is in danger, the captain may break the rules to save it."

"The Constitution grants Congress the power to regulate federal territories."

"Therefore, Congress may prohibit slavery in the territories."

"I have never believed that any man fulfilled his duty to God by going to war to break up the Union."

"I have also never believed that God approves of slavery."

"The Bible was not written to justify oppression."

"God cannot be mocked. A nation that enslaves others will itself be brought low."

"I have often turned to prayer—not for victory, but for wisdom."

"I have been driven to my knees many times by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go."

"The Lord will not be on the side of oppressors."

"If we err, it should be on the side of mercy."

"Right makes might—that is, in the end, truth conquers."

"Let us judge not, that we be not judged."

"We are all sinners, but we must strive for righteousness."

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

"I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views."

"I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me."

"I want it to be said that I have done nothing in malice: what I have done, I have done for humanity."

"History will judge us not by our words, but by our actions."

"I shall do all that may be in my power to promote a peaceful settlement of our difficulties."

"The progress of our age is part of the eternal plan of God."

"I have desired that all men might be free."

"I have desired that all men might be happy."

"I have desired that all men might be wise."

"The best way to predict the future is to create it."

"I leave you, hoping that you will watch over my memory."

"May the light of truth shine upon my deeds, whether they are praised or forgotten."