„O der Erfahrung, die uns treulich warnt und niemals retten kann.“

Quelle: https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/buecher/autoren/kurt-drawert-ich-suche-etwas-von-dem-ich-nur-weiss-dass-es-mir-fehlt-16926853.html?printPagedArticle=true#pageIndex_2

Die Bürgschaft
Gedichte und Balladen, An die Freude (1785), Die Bürgschaft (1798)

Vorlesungen über die Philosophie der Weltgeschichte. Bd. 1: Die Vernunft in der Geschichte, hg. v. Johannes Hoffmeister, Hamburg 1994, S. 19
Vorlesungen über die Philosophie der Geschichte

in einem Brief an Horace Greeley vom 22. August 1862. Zitiert von Berthold Seewald Wie Abraham Lincoln die Sklavenhalter provozierte http://www.welt.de/kultur/history/article10708318/Wie-Abraham-Lincoln-die-Sklavenhalter-provozierte.html?wtmc=RSS.Kultur.Geschichte. Welt Online, 5. November 2010.
Original englisch: "My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union." - Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 5 http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=lincoln;cc=lincoln;type=simple;rgn=div1;q1=greeley;singlegenre=All;view=text;subview=detail;sort=occur;idno=lincoln5;node=lincoln5%3A848