Leadership Quote by Abraham Lincoln

Litigation, in Lincoln's framing, is less a noble contest of rights than a civic toxin: expensive, polarizing, and prone to turning neighbors into permanent enemies. The opening imperative is almost countercultural for a lawyer-politician, and that’s the point. He’s arguing for a public-minded legal ethic that treats the courtroom as a last resort, not a career pipeline.

The subtext is pragmatic as much as moral. Lincoln isn’t asking lawyers to renounce self-interest; he’s anticipating the obvious objection. “There will still be business enough” is a dry concession that doubles as reassurance and critique. It suggests the legal system produces a steady stream of conflict regardless, so a lawyer can afford to choose restraint without starving. That line also quietly indicts a profession that might otherwise be tempted to monetize grievance: you don’t need to manufacture more.

“As a peacemaker the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man” carries the rhetorical weight of a statesman who understood that law is social glue before it’s an instrument of victory. The lawyer sits at the choke point where private disputes become public spectacles; steering people toward compromise is, in Lincoln’s view, a form of governance at the micro level. Coming from a president who would preside over a nation where compromise ultimately failed, the advice reads as both ideal and warning: when institutions reward escalation, the work of de-escalation becomes a moral test, not just professional strategy.