„Lincoln was one of history's greatest men, but Americans are not like him. He was a lonely exception.“

„He was proud, like all lonely men. Lonely men must be proud or die.“

—  Gene Wolfe, livro Starwater Strains

"The Arimaspin Legacy" (1987), first appeared as a Winter Solstice chapbook from Cheap Street, Reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Starwater Strains (2005)
Fiction

„More than any other American, Lincoln's name has gone into history. He gave all Americans, indeed all people everywhere, reason to remember that he had lived.“

—  James M. McPherson American historian 1936

James M. McPherson. Abraham Lincoln, (2009) p. 65
2000s

„For Lincoln, the principle of human equality, "that all men are created equal", did not admit exceptions.“

—  Harry V. Jaffa American historian and collegiate professor 1918 - 2015

2000s, Is Diversity Good? (2003)
Contexto: To allow slavery to be introduced into free territories, where it had not hitherto existed, was, Abraham Lincoln held, a very bad thing. His opponent, Stephen A. Douglas, held that it was a sacred right, belonging to the people of each territory, to decide for themselves whether or not to have slavery among their domestic institutions. According to Douglas, Lincoln wanted to destroy the diversity upon which the union had subsisted, by insisting that all the states ought to be free. But for Douglas himself, the principle of 'popular sovereignty' did not admit of exceptions. There was to be no diversity, no deviation from the right of the people to decide. For Lincoln the wrongness of slavery meant that no one, and no people, had the right to decide in its favor. For Lincoln, the principle of human equality, "that all men are created equal", did not admit exceptions.

„A shy man's lot is not a happy one. The men dislike him, the women despise him, and he dislikes and despises himself. Use brings him no relief, and there is no cure for him except time.“

—  Jerome K. Jerome, livro Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow

Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886)
Contexto: All great literary men are shy. I am myself, though I am told it is hardly noticeable. I am glad it is not. It used to be extremely prominent at one time, and was the cause of much misery to myself and discomfort to every one about me—my lady friends especially complained most bitterly about it. A shy man's lot is not a happy one. The men dislike him, the women despise him, and he dislikes and despises himself. Use brings him no relief, and there is no cure for him except time.

„[Lloyd George] had always felt that they thought that in him they had a kindred spirit. That was true. Their great men were the men he admired; some of their greatest men were the men from whom he had drawn inspiration, notably Abraham Lincoln. The next day he was to start on a journey to see a country which he regarded as the great miracle of the West, where man had risen from the dead past to a new hope.“

—  David Lloyd George Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1863 - 1945

Speech to the American Society in London at the Savoy Hotel, London (28 September 1923) before his tour of the United States, quoted in The Times (29 September 1923), p. 6
Later life

„Do you know what I think of history? … For a while I thought history was something that bitter old men wrote. But Jack loved history so… No one'll ever know everything about Jack. But … history made Jack what he was … this lonely, little sick boy … scarlet fever … this little boy sick so much of the time, reading in bed, reading history … reading the Knights of the Round Table … and he just liked that last song.
Then I thought, for Jack history was full of heroes. And if it made him this way, if it made him see the heroes, maybe other little boys will see. Men are such a combination of good and bad … He was such a simple man. But he was so complex, too. Jack had this hero idea of history, the idealistic view, but then he had that other side, the pragmatic side… his friends were all his old friends; he loved his Irish Mafia.“

—  Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis public figure, First Lady to 35th U.S. President John F. Kennedy 1929 - 1994

The "Camelot" interview (29 November 1963)

„One of the marvelous things about him is that he is strong enough to force the men who dislike him the most to stand by him. By far he is the strongest man before the people to-day except Roosevelt. I think his greatest fault is his failure to accord credit to anyone for what he may have done. This is a great weakness in any man. I think it was one of the strongest things about Roosevelt. He never tried to minimize what other people did and often exaggerated it.“

—  William Howard Taft American politician, 27th President of the United States (in office from 1909 to 1913) 1857 - 1930

On Charles Evans Hughes, in November 1909, as quoted in Taft and Roosevelt : The intimate letters of Archie Butt (1930) by Archibald Willingham Butt, p. 224; this has sometimes been paraphrased: "Failure to accord credit to anyone for what he may have done is a great weakness in any man."

„The man responsible for keeping Americans safe from another terrorist attack on American soil for nearly seven years now will go down in history as one of America's greatest presidents.“

—  Ann Coulter author, political commentator 1961

"Bush's America: 100 Percent Al-Qaida Free Since 2001" (11 June 2008) http://www.anncoulter.com/cgi-local/article.cgi?article=256.
2008

„I consider him [i. e Stalin] one of the greatest persons in the history of mankind. In the history of Russia he was, in my opinion, even greater than Lenin. Until Stalin's death I was anti-Stalinist, but I always regarded him as a brilliant personality.“

—  Aleksandr Zinovyev Russian writer 1922 - 2006

In an interview to Независимая Газета http://www.peoples.ru/art/literature/prose/roman/alexander_zinoviev/

„I accuse the present Administration of being the greatest spending Administration in peacetime in all American history“

—  Franklin D. Roosevelt 32nd President of the United States 1882 - 1945

one which piled bureau on bureau, commission on commission, and has failed to anticipate the dire needs or reduced earning power of the people. Bureaus and bureaucrats have been retained at the expense of the taxpayer. We are spending altogether too much money for government services which are neither practical nor necessary. In addition to this, we are attempting too many functions and we need a simplification of what the Federal government is giving the people."
"Campaign Address on Agriculture and Tariffs at w:Sioux City, Iowa (29 September 1932)
1930s

„Lincoln. His commitment to preserving the United States was so strong and so deep that he was willing to do whatever it took to succeed. Would you like to be in his shoes? Just think about that for a moment. Not just Lincoln. There are hundreds of examples in history.“

—  James M. McPherson American historian 1936

1990s, An Exchange With a Civil War Historian (June 1995)

„He had the vanity to believe men did not like him – while men simply did not know him.“

—  Gustave Flaubert, livro November

Fonte: November

„His mortal frame has vanished, but his spirit increases with the increasing years the richest legacy of the greatest century. Men show by what they worship what they are. It is no accident that before the great example of American manhood, our people stand with respect and reverence. In Abraham Lincoln is revealed our ideal; the hope of our country fulfilled. He was the incarnation of what America was to be. Through him, the Almighty bestowed upon the nation a new birth of freedom that this dear land of ours might be returned to the health of its fathers.“

—  Calvin Coolidge American politician, 30th president of the United States (in office from 1923 to 1929) 1872 - 1933

1920s, Duty of Government (1920)

„I would put our legislative and foreign policy accomplishments in our first two years against any president -- with the possible exceptions of Johnson, FDR, and Lincoln -- just in terms of what we've gotten done in modern history.“

—  Barack Obama 44th President of the United States of America 1961

An interview with 60 Minutes, December 20, 2011. http://newsbusters.org/blogs/pj-gladnick/2011/12/16/60-minutes-broadcast-edits-out-laughable-obama-claim-4th-greatest-presi
2011

„In my Cabinet at the time there were men of English and French, German, Irish, and Dutch blood, men born on this side and men born in Germany and Scotland; but they were all Americans and nothing else; and every one of them was incapable of thinking of himself or of his fellow-countrymen, excepting in terms of American citizenship.“

—  Theodore Roosevelt American politician, 26th president of the United States 1858 - 1919

1910s, Address to the Knights of Columbus (1915)
Contexto: In my Cabinet at the time there were men of English and French, German, Irish, and Dutch blood, men born on this side and men born in Germany and Scotland; but they were all Americans and nothing else; and every one of them was incapable of thinking of himself or of his fellow-countrymen, excepting in terms of American citizenship. If any one of them had anything in the nature of a dual or divided allegiance in his soul, he never would have been appointed to serve under me, and he would have been instantly removed when the discovery was made. There wasn't one of them who was capable of desiring that the policy of the United States should be shaped with reference to the interests of any foreign country or with consideration for anything, outside of the general welfare of humanity, save the honor and interest of the United States, and each was incapable of making any discrimination whatsoever among the citizens of the country he served, of our common country, save discrimination based on conduct and on conduct alone.

„As far as I knew white women were never lonely, except in books. White men adored them, Black men desired them and Black women worked for them.“

—  Maya Angelou American author and poet 1928 - 2014

„Lincoln’s place in the history of the United States and of mankind will, nevertheless, be next to that of Washington!“

—  Karl Marx German philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist and revolutionary socialist 1818 - 1883

Comments on the North American Events (1862)

„Zidane is one of the greatest players in history, a truly magnificent player.“

—  Zinedine Zidane French association football player and manager 1972

Franz Beckenbauer, 2006 http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/world_cup_2006/teams/france/5147908.stm.

„I feel sometimes an American artist must feel, like a baseball player or something - a member of a team writing American history..“

—  Willem de Kooning Dutch painter 1904 - 1997

Willem de Kooning (1969) by Thomas B. Hess, Content Is A Glimpse, excerpts from an interview with David Sylvester, (BBC), Location, vol.1 no.1 Spring 1963.
1960's