A house divided against itself cannot stand.
Lincoln gave the speech on accepting the Republican nomination for the Senate in Illinois. The line is a quotation from the Gospels (Mark 3:25 and Matthew 12:25); he applied it to a country he said could not endure “half-slave and half-free”.
That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
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.
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.
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
The rank is but the guinea’s stamp, / The Man’s the gowd for a’ that.
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: / Its loveliness increases; it will never / Pass into nothingness;