A. C. Graham Quotes
Angus Charles Graham was a British sinologist and philosopher, professor of classical Chinese at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, and the most influential English-language interpreter of classical Chinese thought of his generation. His Disputers of the Tao remains a landmark synthetic account of the philosophical schools of pre-imperial China, while his translation and study of Chuang-Tzu: The Inner Chapters and his Studies in Chinese Philosophy and Philosophical Literature placed Daoist and later Mohist logical traditions in conversation with Western analytic philosophy. The quotes below are attributed to A. C. Graham, organized by topic.
A. C. Graham on Freedom
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“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.”
Wikiquote
A. C. Graham on God
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“Abraham Lincoln his hand and pen he will be good but God knows When”
Manuscript poem, as a teenager (ca. 1824–1826) , in "Lincoln as Poet" at Library of Congress : Presidents as Poets also in The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (1953) edited by Roy. P. Basler, Vol. 1
A. C. Graham on Knowledge
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Attributed to A. C. Graham:
“Chinese philosophy disputed the Way as fiercely as European philosophy disputed reason.”
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Attributed to A. C. Graham:
“The later Mohists were rigorous logicians; we are still catching up with them.”
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Attributed to A. C. Graham:
“To translate is to think the original anew, in another mind.”
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“Manuscript poem, as a teenager (ca. 1824–1826) , in "Lincoln as Poet" at Library of Congress : Presidents as Poets also in The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (1953) edited by Roy. P. Basler, Vol. 1”
Abraham Lincoln his hand and pen he will be good but God knows When -
“Abraham Lincoln is my name And with my pen I wrote the same I wrote in both hast and speed and left it here for fools to read”
Manuscript poem, as a teenager (ca. 1824–1826), in "Lincoln as Poet" at Library of Congress : Presidents as Poets , as published in The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (1953) edited by Roy. P. Basler, Vol. 1 -
“Manuscript poem, as a teenager (ca. 1824–1826), in "Lincoln as Poet" at Library of Congress : Presidents as Poets , as published in The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (1953) edited by Roy. P. Basler, Vol. 1”
Abraham Lincoln is my name And with my pen I wrote the same I wrote in both hast and speed and left it here for fools to read -
“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”
Wikiquote -
“These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert to fleece the people, and now that they have got into a quarrel with themselves, we are called upon to appropriate the people's money to settle the quarrel.”
Speech to Illinois legislature (January 1837); This is "Lincoln's First Reported Speech", found in the Sangamo Journal (28 January 1837) according to McClure's Magazine (March 1896); also in Lincoln's Complete Works (1905) ed. by Nicolay and Hay, Vol. 1, p. 24
A. C. Graham on Mind
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Attributed to A. C. Graham:
“Reason and spontaneity are not opposites; in the highest practice they coincide.”
A. C. Graham on Politics
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“Address Delivered in Candidacy for the State Legislature (9 March 1832)”
Upon the subject of education , not presuming to dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people can be engaged in. That every man may receive at least a moderate education, and thereby be enabled to read the histories of his own and other countries, by which he may duly appreciate the value of our free institutions, appear -
“Address Delivered in Candidacy for the State Legislature (9 March 1832)”
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.
A. C. Graham on Truth
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“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.”
Address Delivered in Candidacy for the State Legislature (9 March 1832)
A. C. Graham on Virtue
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Attributed to A. C. Graham:
“The Daoist sage acts in spontaneity, not in calculation, and yet acts well.”
Things actually not said by A. C. Graham
A number of widely-shared lines are circulated as A. C. Graham but are in fact from someone else. Did A. C. Graham say these? No. Each entry below pairs the line with the person who actually wrote it.
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Did A. C. Graham say this? No.
“Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Alledgedly from a speech to the Illinois House of Representatives (18 December 1840) its called "a remarkable piece of spurious Lincolniana" by Merrill D. Peterson: Lincoln in American Memory . Oxford UP 1995, books.google . Cf. Spurious archive.org and Harry Miller Lydenberg: Lincoln and Prohibitio
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Did A. C. Graham say this? No.
“He only has the right to criticize who has the heart to help.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but the actual source is William Penn. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Original quote from William Penn (1693): They have a Right to censure, that have a Heart to help: The rest is Cruelty, not Justice .
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Did A. C. Graham say this? No.
“I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky!”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: See, for example, Albert D. Richardson (1865), The Secret Service, the Field, the Dungeon, and the Escape . The quotation is based on a comment by Rev. Moncure D. Conway about the progress of the Civil War. It is evident that the worthy President would like to have God on his side: he must have Kent
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Did A. C. Graham say this? No.
“To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Sometimes attributed to Lincoln since a 1950 speech of Douglas MacArthur citing him as its author, this is actually from a poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox .
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Did A. C. Graham say this? No.
“My earlier views on the unsoundness of the Christian scheme of salvation and the human origin of the scriptures have become clearer and stronger with advancing years, and I see no reason for thinking I shall ever change them.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Letter to Judge J. A. Wakefield , after the death of Lincoln's son Willie in 1862, as cited in Abraham Lincoln: was he a Christian? (1893), p. 292 , by John Eleazer Remsburg. Historian Merrill Daniel Peterson states in Lincoln in American Memory (1994), p. 227 , that the letter has never actually be
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Did A. C. Graham say this? No.
“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: First attributed to Lincoln in 2002, this seems a paraphrase of a statement in the Lyceum address of 1838, while incorporating language used by Thomas E. Dewey (c. 1944), who said "By the same token labor unions can never be destroyed from the outside. They can only fail if they fail to lend their u
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Did A. C. Graham say this? No.
“I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him. Be honest, but hate no one; overturn a man's wrongdoing, but do not overturn him unless it must be done in overturning the wrong. Stand with a man while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: The last sentence is from the 16 October 1854 Peoria speech, slightly paraphrased. No known contemporary source for the rest. It first appears, attributed to Lincoln, in US religious/inspirational journals in 1907-8, such as p123, Friends Intelligencer: a religious and family journal , Volume 65, Is
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Did A. C. Graham say this? No.
“Any nation that does not honor its heroes will not long endure.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Not by Lincoln, this is apparently paraphrased from remarks about honoring him by Hugh Gordon Miller: "I do not believe in forever dragging over or raking up some phases of the past; in some respects the dead past might better be allowed to bury its dead, but the nation which fails to honor its hero
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Did A. C. Graham say this? No.
“Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled, or hanged.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: This was the lead sentence in an article "Democrats Usher in An Age of Treason" by conservative author J. Michael Waller in Insight magazine (23 December 2003) which a copyeditor ( http://www.factcheck.org/misquoting_lincoln.html ) mistakenly put quotation marks around, making it seem a quote of Lin
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Did A. C. Graham say this? No.
“If you look for the bad in mankind expecting to find it, you surely will.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: This is attributed to Lincoln in the 1960 film adaptation of Pollyanna . In reality, it was fabricated by screenwriter and director David Swift , who had to have thousands of lockets bearing the false inscription recalled after Disney began selling them at Disneyland .
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Did A. C. Graham say this? No.
“Money is the creature of law and creation of the original issue of money should be maintained as an exclusive monopoly of national government.… Democracy will rise superior to Money Power.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: These remarks in support of a government-regulated money supply were written by Gerry McGeer , who presented them as his interpretation of what Lincoln believed. McGeer, Gerald Grattan (1935). "5 - Lincoln, Practical Economist" . The Conquest of Poverty . Gardenvale, Quebec: Garden City Press. pp. 1
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Did A. C. Graham say this? No.
“To ease another's heartache is to forget one's own.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Quoted in a Edith A. Sawyer (1899), Mary Cameron
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Did A. C. Graham say this? No.
“If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Attributed in Evan Esar (1949), The Dictionary of Humorous Quotations
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Did A. C. Graham say this? No.
“I will study and get ready, and perhaps my chance will come.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Attributed in Laura Haddock (1931), Steps Upward in Personality
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Did A. C. Graham say this? No.
“I am not concerned that you fall; I am concerned that you arise.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Attributed in Deborah Gillan Straub (1996), Native North American Voices
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Did A. C. Graham say this? No.
“If I had another face, do you think I would wear this one?”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Attributed in Jean Dresden Grambs (1959), Abraham Lincoln Through the Eyes of High School Youth
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Did A. C. Graham say this? No.
“It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Variously attributed to Lincoln, Elbert Hubbard , Mark Twain , Benjamin Franklin and Socrates
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Did A. C. Graham say this? No.
“Marriage is neither heaven nor hell, it is simply purgatory.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Attributed in Henry Louis Mencken (1942), A New Dictionary of Quotations
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Did A. C. Graham say this? No.
“You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but the actual source is Quoted. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Quoted in Herbert V. Prochnow (1955), Speaker's Book of Epigrams and Witticisms
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Did A. C. Graham say this? No.
“The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Attributed in A Dictionary of Thoughts (1908) by Tryon Edwards ; this is earlier attributed to Theodore Roosevelt in Life of William McKinley (1901) by Samuel Fallows, and could be derived from the remarks of Ulysses S. Grant in his First Inaugural Address (4 March 1869): "I know no method to secure
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Did A. C. Graham say this? No.
“The only person who is a worse liar than a faith healer is his patient.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but the actual source is Quoted. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Quoted in Victor J. Stenger (1990), Physics and Psychics
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Did A. C. Graham say this? No.
“I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Attributed to Lincoln in Mark Gold (1998), Animal century . Also attributed to Rowland Hill in Henry Woodcock (1879), Wonders of Grace
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Did A. C. Graham say this? No.
“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but the actual source is Quoted. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Quoted in Vernon K. McLellan (2000) Wise Words and Quotes
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Did A. C. Graham say this? No.
“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Widely attributed to Lincoln, this appears to be derived from Thomas Carlyle 's general comment below, but there are similar quotes about Lincoln in his biographies. Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity. Thoma
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Did A. C. Graham say this? No.
“And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: This quote is often misattributed to Lincoln. The earliest instance that Quote Investigator could locate was "in an advertisement in 1947 for a book about aging by Edward J. Stieglitz, M.D". The advertisement for “The Second Forty Years” which ran in the Chicago Tribune newspaper read like this: The
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Did A. C. Graham say this? No.
“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts, and beer.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Misattributed to Lincoln by several authors since about 2000. Source of quote: General Douglas MacArthur is quoted as saying, "Like Abraham Lincoln, I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the rea
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Did A. C. Graham say this? No.
“How many legs does a dog have, if you call a tail a leg?”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: His collected works contain no riddle about dog legs, but George W. Julian recounts Lincoln using a similar story about a calf in Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln by distinguished men of his time (1909), p. 241: "There are strong reasons for saying that he doubted his right to emancipate under the w
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Did A. C. Graham say this? No.
“Whatever you are, try to be a good one.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: This quote is often misattributed to Lincoln. The earliest instance that Quote Investigator could locate was in an 1897 memoir published by Laurence Hutton , who attributed the quote to William Makepeace Thackeray .