What does this quote mean?

“Let us have faith that right makes might.”

Lincoln reverses the idea that power establishes right, arguing that moral judgment should guide sustained political action rather than treating strength or intimidation as proof of justice.

Source note: Cooper Union Address, February 27, 1860, closing passage. Lincoln is defending Republican opposition to the extension of slavery into federal territories; the line retains that antislavery political context.

“Let us stand by our duty, fearlessly and effectively.”

Once a moral and political conclusion has been reached, Lincoln argues that intimidation and evasive compromise should not displace the duty that follows from that judgment.

Source note: Cooper Union Address, February 27, 1860. The sentence appears in Lincoln’s closing argument about opposing slavery’s spread and should not be detached into a context-free command about every disputed duty.

“Reverencing the rights of humanity, I shall dare to assert them.”

Wollstonecraft presents public argument as an obligation to defend human rights even when ridicule or social pressure makes such advocacy uncomfortable.

Source note: A Vindication of the Rights of Men, opening pages; the sentence immediately follows her statement that she contends for the rights of men and liberty of reason.

“It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.”

Thoreau distinguishes legality from moral rightness, warning that habitual reverence for law can become dangerous when law and conscience point in opposing directions.

Source note: Civil Disobedience, first printed in 1849 as “Resistance to Civil Government”; represented Wikisource text. The surrounding paragraph asks whether citizens should resign conscience to legislators.

“The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.”

Thoreau places personal moral judgment ahead of automatic obedience, arguing that conscience creates an individual responsibility to decide whether one’s own action is right.

Source note: Civil Disobedience, first printed in 1849 as “Resistance to Civil Government”; represented Wikisource text. The claim is part of Thoreau’s political argument about conscience, slavery, war and government.

“Then we must do no wrong?”

The brief question tests whether the previously accepted principle against wrongdoing still holds when obedience to it becomes personally costly.

Source note: Crito, Benjamin Jowett translation; Socrates is testing the moral premises that will govern his decision about escaping prison.