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Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable - a most sacred right - a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world.
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Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.
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I was losing interest in politics, when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again. What I have done since then is pretty well known.
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No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.
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Avoid popularity if you would have peace.
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All my life I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever the flower would grow in thought and mind.
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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.
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Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.
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If there is anything that a man can do well, I say let him do it. Give him a chance.
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The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.
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When you have got an elephant by the hind legs and he is trying to run away, it’s best to let him run.
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The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly.
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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.
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I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.
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I never had a policy I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.
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The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend.
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Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.
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My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.
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The things I want to know are in books my best friend is the man who’ll get me a book I ain’t read.
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The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.