"The way for a young man to rise, is to improve himself every way he can, never suspecting that any body wishes to hinder him"

I am a recent convert to worship at the alter of Abraham Lincoln, but I must admit in a wonderful flowering of my mind I have stumbled across him as a model by which much can be learned and admired.
In short, he moves me, to aspire to everything I can be.
I feel a cloud has hung over my head in a time that actually represents unprecedently positive output. That would better be articulated as 'Life is good' better than that 'life is beautiful' and for the next couple of posts, where I can manage them after pulling up stumps I want to celebrate that fact.
And with that said, here I wish to dwell on Honest Abe, a man who has enormous potential to bring about positive change in my life. Aside from his achievements what strikes me the most is the broad appeal of his eloquence. It is something else, I can't pin it down. His ability to articulate dwarfs my conception.
For example

As a nation, we began by declaring that "all men are created equal." We now practically read it "all men are created equal, except negroes." When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and catholics." When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty — to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be take pure, and without the base alloy of hypocracy

First off here was a man of conviction and founder of the republican party that if alive today, the Iraq war would not have occured, I also imagine the Taikun/tycoon would have probably put an end to middle east disputes. Of course Abe living today would be an impossibility as he was pretty old when he was killed.
The point is, that Abe's achievement was to talk sense & get listened to, whether by providence or design he ascended to make the right calls. He made the right calls and it cost him his life.
Here is a man in the now (or was) godlike seat of POTUS pointing to the the very document they hold dear and striking at the heart of the people's own betrayals of their ideals. The above quote comes from a letter to a slave owner, what an admonition. I'd be heading out the back and freeing my slaves that instant, even if living the wealthy plantation dream.
Or this might be more to your liking:

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 with anyone or not. I did not read with anyone. 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.

These words, these moving words, they make me feel as though he talks in the mind that everyone will read them one day, as if he is conscious of that. He speaks of determination, and what constitutes substance in life. And he is right. This place I have been, not in practicing law, but in bungling my own university preferences and thus bungling my college residence. But the revelation I had was that college didn't matter people weren't going to not have fun in order to recognise the greater prestige of another university residence.
Then there's:

In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free —honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best, hope of earth.

Although Lincoln said some pretty non-committal abolition arguements in his early debates, his stance derives from pure principle, and does not descend into a scientific arguement, in so far that well reasoned principle is unscientific which when based on observable evidence it is highly scientific. But people concluding scientifically at the time that the colour of ones skin, or the width of ones nose was scientific proof of inferiority still cannot stand up the test of reason.
That is that one can reasonably observe that when one person improsins the other, by the necessity of his participation the imprisoner simultaneously becomes imprisoned.

I have always thought that all men should be free; but if any should be slaves, it should be first those who desire it for themselves, and secondly, those who desire it for others. When I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.

The 'golden rule' is anthropologically speaking the basis of all morality, the ten commands in my opinion a waste of time. That said the above statement I think applies it so succinctly and beautifully that I feel spurred on to seek out anyone who thinks that by rights another is inferior.

no man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent.

This reminds me of a another of my favorite quotes that of Eleanore Roosevelt 'Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission' I hold this quote to be a fundamental belief of mine, I own my feelings, and power I bequeth on others over me, it is not taken, unless taken away, by me. Abe makes it impossible in this statement, as well as a morale imperitive that I like it less. But for a couple of decades before Eleanore Roosevelt walked the earth it does the job.

Repeal the Missouri Compromise — repeal all compromises — repeal the Declaration of Independence — repeal all past history, you still can not repeal human nature. It still will be the abundance of man's heart, that slavery extension is wrong; and out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth will continue to speak.

This particularly strikes a cord with me. How easily moved I am, but all human achievement, all documentation and precedent are as nothing if they do not move us closer to harmony with human nature, and human nature in harmony with nature as a whole. Do I sound like a hippy? probably, but that does not deter me, because from every game I've ever played reality seems to always emerge victorious.

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.

The enough rope principle, enough said.

I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.

This Jesus' said more or less in the famous 'A new commandment I give onto you that you love one another...' except he said it poorly compared to Lincoln. Lincoln naturally understands the 'whats in it for me?' principle, he points to virtue in the virtue of sense, not a commandment that does not afford us the priveledge of knowing why we must do something. That does not make me Jesus' pal.

If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?

the lighter side of Lincoln. And now something more contentious.

It is better to stay silent and let people think you are an idiot than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

In law I understand this is negligent misstatement and shit, but in my practical experience the smartest people are the ones who have no shyness when it comes to letting people know how little they know.

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

true, true. Adversity as a virtue is most useful to the powerful and virtueless to promote amongst those who have no power of their own (because they give it away).

When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion.

If only it was, but this in turn probably leads me to a good enough point to cap off this sycophancy, suffice to say I am inspired any time that man opens his moth between two quotation marks on a page. A good politician in my opinion should be a good comedian, and vice versa. Austere yes, powerful definitely. It is a shame Nationalism makes us search for leaders in our own backyard who are great, not that we shouldn't aspire to the best in ourselves, but the best of ourselves is the broadest context we imagine ourselves in and that is the best of the world. Lincoln's membership to this category I do not doubt.
So I shall end with the quote that I should most remember:
'It never occurs to some politicians that Lincoln is worth imitating as well as quoting.' - Author Unknown published 1996