If you are resolutely determined to make a lawyer of yourself, the thing is more than half done already. It is but a small matter whether you read wi… - Abraham Lincoln

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed, is more important than any other one thing.

The books, and your capacity for understanding them, are just the same in all places… Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed, is more important than any other one thing.

Your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other

Get the books, and read and study them till, you understand them in their principal features; and that is the main thing. It is of no consequence to be in a large town while you are reading. I read at New-Salem, which never had three hundred people living in it. The books, and your capacity for understanding them, are just the same in all places. ... Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed, is more important than any other one thing.

I am not at all concerned about whose side God is on, for I know the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side.

Is there a Democrat, especially one of the Douglas wing, but will declare that the Declaration of Independence has no application to the negro? It would be safe to offer a moderate premium for such a man. I have asked this question in large audiences where they were in the habit of answering right out, but no one would say otherwise. Not one of them said it five years ago. I never heard it till I heard it from the lips of Judge Douglas. True, some men boldly took the bull by the horns and said the Declaration of Independence was not true! They didn't sneak around the question. I say I heard first from Douglas that the Declaration did not apply to black men. Not a man of them said it till then, they all say it now. This is a long stride towards establishing the policy of indifference, one more such stride, I think, would do it.

You are fifty years old and would worship a day[old statue!