Abraham Lincoln Quotes
"To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Men, Cowards, Protest, Silence, Sin)
"With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Day, Night)
"The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Cause, May, Struggle, Support)
"The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of liberty."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Act, Liberty, Sheep)
"Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Slavery)
"With Malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Work, God, Charity, Firmness, Malice, Nation, Right, Wounds)
"When you have got an elephant by the hind legs and he is trying to run away, it's best to let him run."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Trying)
"When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Act, Bees, Fighting, Man)
"When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Religion)
"When I am getting ready to reason with a man, I spend one-third of my time thinking about myself and what I am going to say and two-thirds about him and what he is going to say."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Time, Man, Reason, Thinking)
"What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Publicity)
"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."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Men, People, Congress, Constitution)
"Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Genius)
"The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Friend, Books, Man, Want)
"To give victory to the right, not bloody bullets, but peaceful ballots only, are necessary."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Victory, Right)
"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Freedom)
"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."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Government, People, Country, Exercise, Right)
"Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: May)
"These men ask for just the same thing, fairness, and fairness only. This, so far as in my power, they, and all others, shall have."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Men, Power)
"These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: People, Act)
"There is nothing true anywhere, The true is nowhere to be seen; If you say you see the true, This seeing is not the true one."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Nothing)
"There is another old poet whose name I do not now remember who said, "Truth is the daughter of Time.""
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Time, Daughter, Name, Now, Old)
"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."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Man, Wishes)
"The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Time, Man, Public)
"We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it."
- Abraham Lincoln
"The highest art is always the most religious, and the greatest artist is always a devout person."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Art, Artist, Religious)
"The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is why he makes so many of them."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: People)
"The people themselves, and not their servants, can safely reverse their own deliberate decisions."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: People, Decisions)
"The people will save their government, if the government itself will allow them."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Government, People, Will)
"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."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Act, Difficulty, Past, Present, Quiet)
"The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Government, Philosophy, School, Will)
"With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Nothing, Public, Sentiment, Succeed)
"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Thought, Doubt, Fool, Open)
"Knavery and flattery are blood relations."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Blood, Flattery, Knavery)
"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Consideration, First, Labor)
"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."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Work, Example, Violence)
"Lets have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Faith, Duty, End, Right)
"Marriage is neither heaven nor hell, it is simply purgatory."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Marriage, Heaven, Hell)
"Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be."
- Abraham Lincoln
"My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Time, Dream, Hope, America, Earth, Will)
"It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Experience, Vices)
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Men, Power, Character, Adversity, Man, Want)
"If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: First)
"My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Failure, Concern, Content)
"In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Life, End, Years)
"In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: God, Act, May, Party, Will, Wrong)
"Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Man)
"If you call a tail a leg, how many legs has a dog? Five? No, calling a tail a leg don't make it a leg."
- Abraham Lincoln
"Public opinion in this country is everything."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Country, Opinion, Public, Public opinion)
"If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Coffee, Tea)
"If there is anything that a man can do well, I say let him do it. Give him a chance."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Chance, Man)
"If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Confidence, Respect)
"If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?"
- Abraham Lincoln
"If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Business)
"If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six hours sharpening my ax."
- Abraham Lincoln
"I'm a slow walker, but I never walk back."
- Abraham Lincoln
"Important principles may, and must, be inflexible."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: May, Principles)
"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."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: God, Ability, Being, Immortality, Infinite, Man)
"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."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Business, Opportunity, Being, Compromise, Man, Neighbors, Will)
"You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was."
- Abraham Lincoln
"You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Responsibility, Today, Tomorrow)
"You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative and independence."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Character, Courage, Independence, Man)
"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Time, People, Fool)
"The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Law)
"The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Friend, Enemy)
"The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Time, Day, Future)
"The ballot is stronger than the bullet."
- Abraham Lincoln
"The assertion that "all men are created equal" was of no practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain and it was placed in the Declaration not for that, but for future use."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Men, Future, Separation)
"Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Men, Defense, Liberty, Prizes, Spirit)
"Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Ability, Tact)
"No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Successful, Man, Memory)
"Stand with anybody that stands right, stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Right, Wrong)
"Some single mind must be master, else there will be no agreement in anything."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Agreement, Mind, Will)
"Some day I shall be President."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Day, President)
"Sir, 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."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: God, Concern, Right)
"Republicans are for both the man and the dollar, but in case of conflict the man before the dollar."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Conflict, Man, Republicans)
"Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Nothing, Public, Sentiment, Succeed)
"I will prepare and some day my chance will come."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Chance, Day, Will)
"People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: People)
"No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Cats, Fight)
"No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Man)
"That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Success, Proof)
"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Idea, Democracy)
"Every one desires to live long, but no one would be old."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Old)
"I was losing interest in politics, when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again. What I have done since then is pretty well known."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Politics, Compromise, Interest, Losing, Pretty)
"Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Constitution)
"Don't worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Worry)
"Die when I may, I want it said by those who knew me best that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Thought, May, Want)
"Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: People, Reason)
"Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Character, Reputation, Shadow)
"Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new at all."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Thoughts, Books, Man)
"Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Feet, Right)
"Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets."
- Abraham Lincoln
"Everybody likes a compliment."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Compliment)
"As our case is new, we must think and act anew."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Act)
"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."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Men, Ambition, Being, Man)
"Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable - a most sacred right - a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Government, Power, People, Hope, Being, Right, World)
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: America, Will)
"Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?"
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Enemies, Friends)
"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Mind, Resolution, Succeed)
"Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose - and you allow him to make war at pleasure."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: War, Purpose, May, Nation, Pleasure, President)
"All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Mother, Hope)
"All my life I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever the flower would grow in thought and mind."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Life, Thought, Mind)
"A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Hurt, Will, Woman)
"A house divided against itself cannot stand."
- Abraham Lincoln
"A friend is one who has the same enemies as you have."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Friend, Enemies)
"Avoid popularity if you would have peace."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Peace, Popularity)
"I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: End)
"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."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Thought, Want)
"I walk slowly, but I never walk backward."
- Abraham Lincoln
"I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Life, Mother)
"I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Policy, Day)
"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."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Man, Will)
"I hope to stand firm enough to not go backward, and yet not go forward fast enough to wreck the country's cause."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Hope, Cause, Country)
"I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Justice, Mercy)
"I don't know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Will)
"Fourscore 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."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Men, Fathers, Liberty, Nation, Years)
"I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Man, Today, Yesterday)
"I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Enemies, Friends)
"I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end... I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Friend, Desire, Earth)
"He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Heart, Help, Right)
"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: First, Will)
"God must love the common man, he made so many of them."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Love, God, Man)
"I don't like that man. I must get to know him better."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Man)
"Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Government, People, Earth)
"I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Religion, Care, Man)
"He who molds the public sentiment... makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to make."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Decisions, Public, Sentiment)
"Hold on with a bulldog grip, and chew and choke as much as possible."
- Abraham Lincoln
"How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg."
- Abraham Lincoln
"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."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Truth, People, Crisis, Facts)
"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."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Light, Right, Succeed, Wrong)
"I can make more generals, but horses cost money."
- Abraham Lincoln
(Related: Money, Horses)