Abraham Lincoln Quotes

There should be an honest attempt at the reconciliation of differences before resorting to combat.

I try to avoid conflict. I don't want people to be unhappy.

There never was a time when, in my opinion, some way could not be found to prevent the drawing of the sword.

If we don't stop somewhere, if we don't accept an unhappy compromise, unhappy for both sides, if we don't learn how to unhappily coexist and contain our burned sense of injustice - if we don't learn how to do that, we end up in a doomed state.

No I don't miss fighting, I still got my wits about me and there are a lot of people who do it and get beat up, and I don't want to be one of them, I have children to raise.

We must teach our children to resolve their conflicts with words, not weapons.

The alternative is not war or doing nothing. Whoever rejects war is not doomed to appeasement.

Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser -- in fees, expenses, and waste of time. As a peacemaker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.

All States do not have the same interests, but are there any interests which cannot be infinitely better reconciled before than after a war?

One should not maintain a dispute.

I have desired as sincerely as any man—I sometimes think more than any other man—that our present difficulties might be settled without the shedding of blood.

I don't like fights that go to decision.

I don't think about fights that didn't happen.

Mediation is one of the most effective tools of non-violence. It can turn parties away from conflict, towards compromise.

The peak efficiency of knowledge and strategy is to make conflict unnecessary.

There is a point beyond which conciliation looks like capitulation. I do not believe I passed that point, but others have thought otherwise.

We are ready to compromise. We are ready to take calculated risks, but for a peace that will give us security.

The inhabitants will always see both sides of an argument so long as it can result in a fight.

It is better to take many injuries than to give one.

I hate to be a kicker, I always long for peace, But the wheel that does the squeaking, is the one that gets the grease.

Our reluctance for conflict should not be misjudged as a failure of will.

We've all got to do everything we can to avoid conflicts.

General, unless he offers us honorable terms, come back and let us fight it out!

A civilised man is someone who has discovered something more satisfying than combat.