Lincoln never said it

Here's an article at CNN on all the spurious quotes attributed to Abraham Lincoln:

Quotes by a minister, a poet and even an actor portraying Lincoln on an episode of "Star Trek" have been attributed to the president, according to Illinois state historian Thomas Schwartz

The preservation agency has added a page to its Web site that exposes famous sayings Lincoln never made. Among them:

-- "To sin by silence, when they should protest, makes cowards of men."

-- "There's no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There's nothing good in war except its ending."

-- "The strength of the nation lies in the homes of its people."

And then there's this one: "You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time."

Thanks to reader Chris Simmons for the pointer.

Here's the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency site referred to above, with information on both quotes and facsimile documents (and much else, besides).

Posted by David on December 1, 2003 5:23 PM