The Gettysburg Address Quotes

Context

This line was spoken (and written) by Abraham Lincoln during his Gettysburg Address (Nov. 19, 1863).

It started as a simple dedication ceremony. President Abraham Lincoln was asked to make a few remarks at the National Cemetery of Gettysburg. He wasn't even the featured speaker, which today would be like asking Kelly Clarkson to sing backup to… er, that guy who lost to Kelly Clarkson. In 1863, Edward Everett, a former secretary of state, played Justin to Lincoln's Kelly and delivered a two-hour speech that basically no one remembers. Sorry, Eddie.

Once ol' Eddie was done, Lincoln stood up (all 6'4" of him) and with his opening words, woke up the crowd and delivered a brief speech that would go down as one of the most memorable in American history. After this classic opening, he went on to talk about "conceived in liberty." (Of course, since no one wants to hear about where they were conceived, everyone plugged their ears in embarrassment.)

Where you've heard it

You may have had to memorize the Gettysburg Address in history class. This is also the rare quote with a math context, in addition to the historical one. If a score is twenty years, how long is "four score and seven"?

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

This quote isn't pretentious—and today it's no longer accurate, either. You're going to have to add a bunch more "score" if you want the quote to still make sense all these years later.