Abraham Lincoln Quotes
Abraham Lincoln was an American statesman and lawyer who served as the 16th president of the United States. Abraham Lincoln led the nation through its greatest moral, constitutional, and political crisis in the American Civil War. He was born on the 12th of February, 1809 at Hodgenville, Kentucky, United States and died on the 15th of April, 1865 at Petersen House, Washington, D.C., United States.
Abraham Lincoln, is one of history’s most outstanding men. He was best known for his role in the emancipation of slaves and keeping the Union together.
Below, we have compiled a collection of famous Abraham Lincoln quotes and sayings.
70 Abraham Lincoln Quotes
“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”
“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”
“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”
“Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”
“I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how a man could look up into the heavens and say there is no God.”
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the ax.”
My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.
When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.
I do the very best I know how – the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
“No man is good enough to govern another man, without that other’s consent. I say this is the leading principle–the sheet anchor of American republicanism.”
“Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.”
“I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.”
“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”
I’m a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn’t have the heart to let him down.
Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.
“Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new after all.”
“I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.”
“I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.”
“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”
“You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.”
“I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.”
My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.
This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.
“You have to do your own growing, no matter how tall your grandfather was.”
“I happen temporarily to occupy this big White House. I am living witness that any one of your children may look to come here as my father’s child has.”
“I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had no where else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day.”
Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man’s nature – opposition to it is his love of justice. These principles are an eternal antagonism; and when brought into collision so fiercely, as slavery extension brings them, shocks and throes and convulsions must ceaselessly follow.
“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts, and beer.”
“Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built.”
“Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem.”
“Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.”
“If there is anything that a man can do well, I say let him do it. Give him a chance.”
“That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.”
“The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.”
“A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.”
We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.
“The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself in every way he can, never suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him.”
A man watches his pear tree day after day, impatient for the ripening of the fruit. Let him attempt to force the process, and he may spoil both fruit and tree. But let him patiently wait, and the ripe pear at length falls into his lap.
“My father taught me to work, but not to love it. I never did like to work, and I don’t deny it. I’d rather read, tell stories, crack jokes, talk, laugh — anything but work.”
“I don’t know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.”
Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.
“No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar”
“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.”
“Don’t worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.”
“Education does not mean teaching people what they do not know. It means teaching them to behave as they do not behave.”
“If you think you can slander a woman into loving you, or a man into voting for you, try it till you are satisfied.”
That I am not a member of any Christian church is true; but I have never denied the truth of the Scriptures, and I have never spoken with intentional disrespect of religion in general, or of any denomination of Christians in particular.
The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.
“The greatest fine art of the future will be the making of a comfortable living from a small piece of land.”
When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees.
“Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.”
When you have got an elephant by the hind legs and he is trying to run away, it’s best to let him run.
“I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.”
“A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me.”
“Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people can be engaged in.”
“A capacity, and taste, for reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others.”
“I am rather inclined to silence, and whether that be wise or not, it is at least more unusual nowadays to find a man who can hold his tongue than to find one who cannot.”
If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.
“It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words, “And this too, shall pass away.” How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!”
What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.
“If frienship is your weakest point then you are the strongest person in the world.”
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
“Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their violation by others.”
“In this sad world of ours sorrow comes to all and it often comes with bitter agony. Perfect relief is not possible except with time. You cannot now believe that you will ever feel better. But this is not true. You are sure to be happy again. Knowing this, truly believing it will make you less miserable now. I have had enough experience to make this statement.”
“Adhere to your purpose and you will soon feel as well as you ever did. On the contrary, if you falter, and give up, you will lose the power of keeping any resolution, and will regret it all your life.”
“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
“I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being.”
“Surely God would not have created such a being as man, with an ability to grasp the infinite, to exist only for a day! No, no, man was made for immortality.”
30 Short Abraham Lincoln Quotes
“Whatever you are, be a good one.”
“Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.”
Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves.
I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.
“Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”
“My Best Friend is a person who will give me a book I have not read.”
“The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.”
“All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.”
“In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.”
“Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done today.”
“The best way to predict your future is to create it.”
When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion.
Those who look for the bad in people will surely find it.
Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.
I will prepare and someday my chance will come.
I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.
“It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.”
I would rather be a little nobody, then to be an evil somebody.
There are no bad pictures; that’s just how your face looks sometimes.
He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.
“Every man’s happiness is his own responsibility.”
“All I have learned, I learned from books.”
“You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry.”
“Love is the chain to lock a child to its parent.”
“It often requires more courage to dare to do right than to fear to do wrong.”
“A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me.”
“If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.”
“If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?”
“I laugh because I must not cry, that is all, that is all.”