'A house divided against itself cannot stand.' I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Lincoln argues that the nation cannot survive half slave and half free, predicting it must become entirely one or the other.
- In plain terms
- The country cannot stay split between slavery and freedom forever.
- What can you take from it?
- Divisive systems eventually collapse or unify.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Can divided societies survive?
- What resolves deep social splits?
Another view
The prediction was accurate but came at the cost of civil war.
More from Abraham Lincoln
If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year, s…
Permalink to quote #66 Either the opponents of slavery, will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of …
Permalink to quote #68 Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature - opposition to it, in his love of justice. These principles are an eternal antagonism; and when brought …
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