美国第16任总统林肯一直是美国历史上最受人景仰的总统之一，他的一生极富传奇。他出身贫寒，幼年就遭受失去母亲的巨大痛苦，但是命运的不幸并没有丝毫让他屈服。他靠着惊人的毅力自学成才，顽强地战胜无数的挫折和困难，最终当选美国总统。他领导了拯救联邦和废除奴隶制度的伟大斗争。马克思高度地评价林肯说，“他是一位达到了伟大境界而仍然保持自己优良品质的罕有的人物。”

    在我们学习英语单词的过程中，聆听一下这位世界伟人的教诲一定可以给我们极大的鼓舞和启迪。下面挑选出林肯的20句精彩名言。

1. All my life I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower  wherever the flower would grow in thought and mind.
Pluck: 拔，摘；
Thistle:蓟

2.America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter¹ and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
Falter: 摇摇欲坠

3. Avoid popularity if you would have peace.
Popularity:出名

4. Ballots³ are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets.
Ballot²:选票

5. Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.
Litigation:诉讼
Compromise:妥协
Superior:占优势的

6. Don't interfere⁴ with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.
Interfere:干涉

7. Don't worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy⁵ of recognition.
Strive:努力争取
Recognize:认可；Recognition是其名词形式

8. Every man is said to have his peculiar⁶ ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed⁸ of my fellow men, by rendering⁹ myself worthy of their esteem⁷.
Peculiar:独特的
Ambition:抱负
Esteem:尊重

9. Everybody likes a compliment.
Compliment:表扬

10. Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe¹⁰.
Sharpen:使锋利

11. Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.
Perish:灭亡

12. Hold on with a bulldog grip, and chew and choke as much as possible.
Grip:牢牢抓住

13. I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.
Mercy: 仁慈

14. I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient¹¹ for the day.
Overwhelm:压倒；淹没
Conviction:坚信
Insufficient：不足的

15. I hope to stand firm enough to not go backward, and yet not go forward fast enough to wreck¹² the country's cause.
Wreck:破坏

16. I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.
Cling:抱住…不放

17. If once you forfeit¹³ the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain¹⁴ their respect and esteem.
Forfeit:丧失

18. Important principles may, and must, be inflexible¹⁵.
Inflexible:不可变更的

19. Knavery¹⁶ and flattery are blood relations.
Knavery:无赖行为；诈骗
Flattery:阿谀奉承

20. Labor¹⁷ is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.
Prior:在…之前。名词为priority