As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.

Abraham Lincoln Fragment on democracy (c. 1858), Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, vol. 2, p. 532 Verified source · How we source quotes
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Where this quote comes from

Lincoln wrote these three sentences as a short fragment in the 1850s; it is printed in volume 2 of his Collected Works, edited by Roy P. Basler in 1953. In three sentences he defines democracy by refusing both roles in slavery. Anything that departs from that principle, he adds, is less of a democracy to exactly the same degree.

Source: Fragment on democracy (c. 1858), Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, vol. 2, p. 532

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