There are no accidents in my philosophy. Every effect must have its cause. The past is the cause of the present, and the present will be the cause of the future. All these are links in the endless chain stretching from the finite to the infinite.

The passage expresses a strongly deterministic, cause-and-effect view of human affairs: events are not random but arise from prior conditions, and present actions in turn shape what follows. Read as a philosophical credo, it frames history and personal experience as an “endless chain” linking the finite (individual lives and particular events) to the infinite (a larger order—whether conceived as Providence, natural law, or moral causation). In a Lincolnian context, the sentiment would resonate with his frequent habit of interpreting political crises and personal trials through the lenses of necessity, responsibility, and consequence—emphasizing that choices carry forward into the future rather than vanishing as isolated moments.