Abraham Lincoln Quotes

It is easy to say that something should be done. However to say what, when and how is more difficult.

I entirely differ with the Government as to the value of precedents. In this case, as in others, precedents are not mere dusty phrases, which do not substantially affect the question before us. A precedent embalms a principle.

What I really like about law is that it's not an endless discourse like history or philosophy. In law, there comes a point where problems have to be solved, and cases decided.

When the Supreme Court renders an important decision, the reasons it gives are often more important than the choice it has made.

I have picked the very, very best deputy that I could. David Parker is a fantastic guy. He's a person who I trust absolutely. He's got a wonderful sense for policy. He will be great on organisation, and I know that I could not have a better deputy.

When you raise issues with the President, try to come away with both that decision and also a precedent. Pose issues so as to evoke broader policy guidance. This can help to answer a range of similar issues likely to arise later.

You can't run a business or anything else on a theory.

Don't fight the problem, decide it.

The more specific you are, the more general it'll be.

The art of doing mathematics consists in finding that special case which contains all the germs of generality.

I am part of a political class that is paralyzed by the prospect of risk.

An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.

Mere precedent is a dangerous source of authority.

It is axiomatic in politics that the earlier one addresses a problem, the more the alternatives and the easier the solutions.

Competing pressures tempt one to believe that an issue deferred is a problem avoided. More often it is a crisis invited.

If a practical man digs himself into a hole, he stops digging; if an ideologue digs himself into a hole, he asks for a bigger shovel.

It appears to me one of those questions which present great inconveniences whichever way it is decided.

Where a phrase is susceptible of two meanings, we ought certainly to adopt that which will bring upon us the fewest inconveniences

Wa-al, that reminds me of a party of Methodist parsons that was traveling in Illinois when I was a boy thar, and had a branch to cross that was pretty bad—ugly to cross, ye know, because the waters was up. And they got considerin’ and discussin’ how they should git across it, and they talked about it for two hours, and one on ‘em thought they had ought to cross one way when they got there, and another another way, and they got to quarrellin’ about it, till at last an old brother put in, and he says, says he, ‘Brethern, this here talk ain’t no use. I never cross a river until I come to it.

Logic can become enormously difficult, and it would undoubtedly be well to produce more assurance in its use.

You are on the ground. You see the needs of the situation, and I shall back up whatever you do.

Any plan is better than no plan.

No easy problems ever come to the President. If they are easy to solve, somebody else has solved them.

I'm putting jobs over ideology.

Generalization is necessary to the advancement of knowledge; but particularity is indispensable to the creations of the imagination.