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Thank you. Now…to the wisdom of Abraham Lincoln…

25+ years ago, I began sending a Quote of the Day to a handful of friends.

The quotes are designed to provoke thought, entertain, and/or enlighten, and over the years, as friends of friends learned about the Quote of the Day, the list of people receiving the daily emailed quote grew to hundreds.

The quote I’m sharing here was actually collected before the invasion of Iraq under President George W. Bush. That gives you an idea how many quotes I have waiting to be used.

“Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose — and you allow him to make war at pleasure. If today, he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada, to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, ‘I see no probability of the British invading us’ but he will say to you, ‘Be silent; I see it, if you don’t.’ ” ~ Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln expressed this opinion about the Mexican-American War in 1846-48, before he became President of the United States.

Yet I find it relevant to decisions President Obama faces today. I’m not saying these moral quandries are easily decided. To the contrary, it seems to me the more urgent the moral issue, the more difficult the decision.

For those of you who subscribe to my blog, you may have noted that I also include a Quote of the Day on my Home page. Usually, the quote used there is the quote I send to my QOTD mailing list — but not always. Not today, for instance.

So, if you, or any of your friends, would like to to be added to the mailing list for my Quote of the Day, just drop me an email and ask. You can Unsubscribe at any time.

25 years of quotes. That’s a book!