"The negative principle that no law is..." - Quote by Abraham Lincoln

“Let us re-adopt the Declaration of Independence, and with it, the practices, and policy, which harmonize with it. Let north and south - let all Americans - let all lovers of liberty everywhere - join in the great and good work. If we do this, we shall not only have saved the Union; but we shall have so saved it, as to make, and to keep it, forever worthy of the saving. We shall have so saved it, that the succeeding millions of free happy people, the world over, shall rise up, and call us blessed, to the latest generations.”

“You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”

“Did Stanton say I was a damned fool? Then I dare say I must be one, for Stanton is generally right and he always says what he means.”

“Morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless.”

“The laws of democracy remain a dead letter, its freedom is anarchy, its equality the equality of unequals”

“Slavery is not penal in character and planned by that law which commands the preservation of the natural order and forbids disturbance.”

“In an unjust society the only place for a just man is prison.”

“Do we call this the land of the free? What is it to be free from King George the Fourth and continue the slaves of prejudice? What is it to be born free and equal, and not to live? What is the value of any political freedom, but as a means to moral freedom?”

“Then a lawyer said, But what of our laws, master? And he answered: 'You delight in laying down laws. Yet you delight more in breaking them.”