Political Quotes

Abraham Lincoln: “But if it is a wrong, he cannot say that people have a right to do wrong.”

On the recordOctober 15, 1858
But if it is a wrong, he cannot say that people have a right to do wrong.
Said by
Abraham Lincoln
Republican · Illinois

Editor's note · Context

Lincoln asserted that if an action is inherently wrong, one cannot logically claim that people have a right to perform that wrong.

Share

More from Abraham Lincoln

Apr 11, 1865

He said, with a great deal of emphasis, and with an expression of countenance I shall never forget: "When a man is sincerely penitent for his misdeeds, and gives satisfactory evidence of the same, he can safely be pardoned, and there is no…

gutenberg.org
Apr 11, 1865

If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.

gutenberg.org
Apr 11, 1865

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.

gutenberg.org
Apr 11, 1865

Grant that he desires the elective franchise, will he not attain it sooner by saving the already advanced steps towards it, than by running backward over them?

gutenberg.org

Other voices in this conversation