Allen C. Guelzo Quotes

I've just always had a personal fascination with the myth of Abraham Lincoln. And once you start to read about him and the Civil War and everything leading up to the Civil War, you start to understand that the myth is created when we think we understand a character and we reduce him to a kind of cultural national stereotype.

I was born Feb. 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families--second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks.... My father ... removed from Kentucky to ... Indiana, in my eighth year.... It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up.... Of course when I came of age I did not know much. Still somehow, I could read, write, and cipher ... but that was all.

I don't [even] know the number of books on Abraham Lincoln. Ten thousand, twelve thousand? I have seen various numbers. It seems like every generation is always trying to come to terms with Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln - the spirit incarnate of those who won victory in the Civil War - was the true representative of this people, not only for his own generation, but for all time, because he was a man among men.

We all remember Abraham Lincoln as the leader who saved our Union. Founder of the Republican Party.

The name of Abraham Lincoln is imperishable.

There is no disputing that Lincoln was a great man.

Obviously, 'Lincoln' is not about the telegraph operator. There's a whole other movie before and after the two isolated scenes that I'm in.

If I have to be typecast, I'd like it to be as Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln is a religion in this country. He is a sacred icon. Millions of people make money selling Lincoln. He is an industry.

Abe Lincoln is my favorite president of all time - and he pulls off that top hat pretty well.

Lincoln was the Twain of our politics.

I think we have reason to thank God for Abraham Lincoln. With all his deficiencies, it must be admitted that he has grown continually.

There's no one who I believe has ever captured the soul of America more profoundly than Abraham Lincoln has.

Even the written history [of Abraham Lincoln's times] is poorly understood by most people.

It didn't occur to me that it was possible to breathe life into Abraham Lincoln.

Presidents in wartime, embattled presidents, unpopular presidents, they all look to Lincoln. He's their patron saint because no president was more embattled or more unpopular than Lincoln was during his presidency. We think he was born on Mount Rushmore. Not so.

I walked out of Spielberg's 'Lincoln' having such a thirst for more. It used such a microscopic albeit enormous event in American history. It used such a small piece of his presidency to illustrate him as a president through the lens of that event.

My memoirs were written, and a portion of them already in the hands of the publishers, when the startling news came which has thrilled all Europe and filled her inhabitants with horror - the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States.

My feeling about him is that the America that we have today, the freedoms we enjoy and the privileges we have, are really the reflection of Abe Lincoln's convictions, his vision, and his toughness.

President Abraham Lincoln never lost his ardor for the United States to remain united during the Civil War.

Lincoln did more than any other man to put the stamp of righteousness, to put the stamp of compassion, on the name of America.

No president has come near to rivaling Lincoln as a writer.

I cannot swallow whole the view of Lincoln as the Great Emancipator.

Thus ended the great American Civil War, which upon the whole must be considered the noblest and least avoidable of all the great mass conflicts of which till then there was record.