Lincoln Discussion Symposium

"You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today."

If true, please provide reliable confirming source.

I can't find the quote, or a variation of it, in the Collected Works. I also can't find the quote attributed to Lincoln prior to an October 1943 Virginia newsaper article. The article itself is basically just a list of aphorisms/quotes, so the quote probably was attributed to Lincoln in an earlier source which I can't find. There doesn't seem to be large scale attributation of the quote to Lincoln until the 1960s.

The nearly 80 year gap between Lincoln's death and the appearance of the quote without any account of when Lincoln said it, makes me feel pretty confident that Lincoln didn't say it.

David, I second Steve. I have researched this quote before and never found a legitimate source.

The closest I can think of is as follows:

"Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done to-day. Never let your correspondence fall behind. Whatever piece of business you have in hand, before stopping, do all the labor pertaining to it which can then be done."

SOURCE: The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume II, "Notes for a Law Lecture" (July 1, 1850?), p. 81.

(01-28-2022 05:11 PM)RJNorton Wrote: [ -> ]David, I second Steve. I have researched this quote before and never found a legitimate source.

The closest I can think of is as follows:

"Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done to-day. Never let your correspondence fall behind. Whatever piece of business you have in hand, before stopping, do all the labor pertaining to it which can then be done."

SOURCE: The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume II, "Notes for a Law Lecture" (July 1, 1850?), p. 81.

Thanks, Roger and Steve. I cannot find again where I saw this quote today. But I used a search using Google Books. And, I found a lot of somewhat recent books referring to this as a "famous Lincoln quote."

Thanks for the real Lincoln quote, Roger.

Did Lincoln ever use the word “evading?” Doesn’t sound like him to me.

Bill, I did a search of the Collected Works and found only three instances where he used the word "evading."

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln?rgn...q1=evading

(01-30-2022 10:40 AM)RJNorton Wrote: [ -> ]Bill, I did a search of the Collected Works and found only three instances where he used the word "evading."

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln?rgn...q1=evading

First instance:

It appears that the practice of loaning money at exorbitant rates of interest, has already been opened as a field for discussion; so I suppose I may enter upon it without claiming the honor, or risking the danger, which may await its first explorer. It seems as though we are never to have an end to this baneful and corroding system, acting almost as prejudicial to the general interests of the community as a direct tax of several thousand dollars annually laid on each county, for the benefit of a few individuals only, unless there be a law made setting a limit to the rates of usury. A law for this purpose, I am of opinion, may be made, without materially injuring any class of people. In cases of extreme necessity there could always be means found to cheat the law, while in all other cases it would have its intended effect. I would not favor the passage of a law upon this subject, which might be very easily evaded. Let it be such that the labor and difficulty of evading it, could only be justified in cases of the greatest necessity.

Bill, it was not Lincoln who would be "evading" the law; it would be the unscrupulous wanting to do so. And, so, you were correct in saying that it does not sound like Lincoln.

Further on in the text, Lincoln states prophetically:

"Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition, is yet to be developed."

New Salem, March 9, 1832.

Thank you Roger and David for your answers. I very much appreciate your time in attending to my thought as you both did!