I may be wrong in regard to any or all of them; but, holding it a sound maxim that it is better only to be sometimes right than at all times wrong, so soon as I discover my opinions to be erroneous I shall be ready to renounce them.
In his first public address, Lincoln declares his intellectual humility and readiness to abandon erroneous opinions.
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More from Abraham Lincoln
If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.
I believe that it is not only possible, but in fact easier, to do this without deciding or even considering whether these States have ever been out of the Union, than with it.
Unlike a case of war between independent nations, there is no organized organ for us to treat with,--no one man has authority to give up the rebellion for any other man.
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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