Abraham Lincoln on Death
Browse 2 quotations attributed to Abraham Lincoln, catalogued under death, with dates where available.
This page displays 2 quotations attributed to Abraham Lincoln and filed under "death" in QuoteLineage. The selection is ordered by stored importance and quality scores, not citation counts. A topic label describes how an entry is catalogued; it does not establish the theme's importance in the author's work.
Attributed to Abraham Lincoln, entry #205585: "Has it not got down as thin as the homeopathic soup that was made by boiling the shadow of a pigeon that had starved to death?"
Attributed to Abraham Lincoln, entry #161239: "Long experience has shown that armies can not be maintained unless desertion shall be punished by the severe penalty of death. The case requires, and the law and the constitution,…"
2 Quotes by Abraham Lincoln on Death
"Has it not got down as thin as the homeopathic soup that was made by boiling the shadow of a pigeon that had starved to death?"
"Long experience has shown that armies can not be maintained unless desertion shall be punished by the severe penalty of death. The case requires, and the law and the constitution, sanction this punishment. Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who deserts, while I must not touch a hair of a wiley agitator who induces him to desert? This is none the less injurious when effected by getting a father, or brother, or friend, into a public meeting, and there working upon his feeling, till he is persuaded to write the soldier boy, that he is fighting in a bad cause, for a wicked administration of a contemptable government, too weak to arrest and punish him if he shall desert. I think that in such a case, to silence the agitator, and save the boy, is not only constitutional, but, withal, a great mercy."