“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
— Abraham Lincoln, The House Divided Speech June 16, 1858
In the Gospel of Mark 3:25, Jesus states, “And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand”
Also, in the Gospel of Matthew 12:25, KJV: “And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto him, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.”
Thomas Hobbes, in his 1651 Leviathan (Chapter 18), stated that, “a kingdom divided in itself cannot stand.”
In Thomas Paine’s 1776 Common Sense, his description of the composition of Monarchy, “this hath all the distinctions of a house divided against itself . . .”
During the War of 1812 a line appeared in a letter from Abigail Adams to Mercy Otis Warren: “… A house divided upon itself — and upon that foundation do our enemies build their hopes of subduing us.”
During the Senate debate on the Compromise of 1850, Sam Houston had proclaimed: “A nation divided against itself cannot stand.”
“We learn from history that we learn nothing from history.”
— George Bernard Shaw