

“As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.”
Fragment on Democracy · 1858
Traced to Fragment on Democracy (1858).
More from Abraham Lincoln
“The way for a young man to rise, is to improve himself every way he can, never suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him.”
Abraham Lincoln
Letter to William H. Herndon · 1848
verified“Stand with anybody that stands right. Stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong.”
Abraham Lincoln
Speech at Peoria, Illinois · 1854
verified“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed, is more important than any other one thing.”
Abraham Lincoln
Letter to Isham Reavis · 1855
verified“The better part of one's life consists of his friendships.”
Abraham Lincoln
Letter to Joseph Gillespie · 1849
verified“Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way.”
Abraham Lincoln
Speech in the United States House of Representatives · 1848
verified“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 mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
Abraham Lincoln
First Inaugural Address · 1861
verifiedMore Philosophy quotes
“There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts.”
Mahatma Gandhi
Young India · 1921
verified“Nonviolence is the first article of my faith. It is also the last article of my creed.”
Mahatma Gandhi
Statement at his trial, Young India · 1922
verified“There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for.”
Mahatma Gandhi
Young India · 1920
verified“For the world is in a bad state, but everything will become still worse unless each of us does his best. So, let us be alert — alert in a twofold sense: Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of. And since Hiroshima we know what is at stake.”
Viktor Frankl
Man's Search for Meaning · 1984
verified“If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death.”
Viktor Frankl
Man's Search for Meaning · 1959
verified“Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.”
Viktor Frankl
Man's Search for Meaning · 1959
verified