Abraham Lincoln Quotes
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It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues. - Vice
A man's legs must be long enough to reach the ground.
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. - Power
Most people are about as happy as they make their minds up to be.
I believe, if we take habitual drunkards as a class, their heads and their hearts will bear an advantageous comparison with those of any other class. There seems ever to have been a proneness in the brilliant and warm-blooded to fall into this vice. - Alcohol and Alcoholism
A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.
In the present civil war—it is quite possible that God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party— and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect his purpose.
There are few things wholly evil or wholly good. Almost everything, especially of government policy, is an inseparable compound of the two, so that our best judgment of the preponderance between them is continually demanded. - Judgment and Judges
Don't swap horses in the middle of the stream.
No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent.
Achievement has no color.
The fiery trials through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation. - Honor
Must a government be too strong for the liberties of its people or too weak to maintain its own existence? - Power
Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves. - Freedom
When I get ready to talk to people, I spend two thirds of the time thinking what they want to hear and one third thinking about what I want to say.
A capacity and taste for reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others.
And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years. - Life and Living
Important principles may and must be inflexible.
Let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you, and in the end you are sure to succeed.
To ease another's heartache is to forget one's own.
If you think you can slander a woman into loving you, or a man into voting for you, try it till you are satisfied.
The Cause of civil liberty must not be surrendered at the end of one, or even one hundred defeats.
The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty
Great honor is due to those officers who remain true despite the example of their treacherous associates; but the greatest honor and most important fact of all is the unanimous firmness of the common soldiers and common sailors.
Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.
In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free -- honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. - Slavery
We must not promise what we ought not, lest we be called on to perform what we cannot. - Vow
When I'm 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 thinking about him and what he is going to say. - Thoughts and Thinking
A house divided against itself cannot stand -- I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. - Unity
We shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it.
I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man. All the good from The Savior of the world is communicated to us through this Book.
Public sentiment is everything, without it nothing can fail, without it nothing can succeed. - Leaders and Leadership
As we keep or break the Sabbath Day we nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope by which man rises.
Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people
In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.
Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing. - Character
Human action can be modified to some extent, but human nature cannot be changed.
The ballot is stronger than the bullet. - Voting
The Bible says somewhere that we are desperately selfish. I think we would have discovered that fact without the Bible.
Writing the art of communicating thoughts to the mind, through the eye is the great invention of the world.
All I am, or can be, I owe to my angel mother. - Family
Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally. - Slavery
To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and I have passed from a young to an old man.
All that I am or hope to be I owe to my angel mother. I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life. - Prayer
Among free men there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet. - Voting
Let the people know the truth and the country is safe. - Truth
As our case is new, we must think and act anew. - Action
The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present.
Every person is responsible for his own looks after 40. - Appearance
It is much easier to ride a horse in the direction it is going.
Familiarize yourself with the chains of bondage and you prepare your own limbs to wear them.
A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me. - Fear
I don't think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday. - Self-improvement
We cannot escape history.
I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day. - Excellence
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. - Poverty and The Poor
We must never sell old friends to buy old enemies.
These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people. - Capitalism
I don't like that man. I'm going to have to get to know him better. - Friends and Friendship
Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can.
No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent.
The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing. - Reality
Every blade of grass is a study; and to produce two, where there was but one, is both a profit and a pleasure.
Few can be induced to labor exclusively for posterity; and none will do it enthusiastically. Posterity has done nothing for us; and theorize on it as we may, practically we shall do very little for it, unless we are made to think we are at the same time doing something for ourselves. - Posterity
Actions speak louder than words.
Believing everyone is dangerous, but believing nobody is more dangerous.
He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I ever met. - Communication
I am a slow walker, but I never walk backwards. - Perseverance
Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored.
Republicans are for both the man and the dollar, but in case of conflict the man before the dollar.
I dream of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth. - Dreams
Will springs from the two elements of moral sense and self-interest. - Will and Will Power
I like to see a man* proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so his place will be proud of him.
I... invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.
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. - Dogs
The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.
Whatever spiteful fools may say, Each jealous ranting yelper, No woman ever went astray, Without a man to help her.
Tell me what brand of whiskey that Grant drinks. I would like to send a barrel of it to my other generals.
The Lord prefers common looking people. That is why he made so many of them. - Appearance
Military glory --the attractive rainbow that rises in showers of blood. - Glory
I regard no man as poor who has a godly mother. Happy Birthday Mom.
I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life. Happy Birthday Mom.
Have I not destroyed my enemy when I have made him into my friend?
When you have got an elephant by the hind legs and he is trying to run away, it's best to let him run. - Common Sense
I don't know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be. - Ancestry
I am here; I must do the best I can, and bear the responsibility of taking the course which I feel I ought to take.
Next to creating a life, the finest thing a man can do is save one.
He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.
War, at the best, is terrible, and this war of ours, in its magnitude and in its duration, is one of the most terrible.
I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong it's reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. - Crisis
You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.
With malice toward none, with charity for all, ...let us strive on to finish the work we are in, ...to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
A friend is one who has the same enemies as you have.
When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees. - Enthusiasm
When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion.
It is the eternal struggle between these two principles -- right and wrong. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time and will ever continue to struggle. It is the same spirit that says, ''You work and toil and earn bread, and I'll eat it.
A tendancy to melancholy let it be observed, is a misfortune, not a fault.
Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way. - Determination
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. - Books and Reading
There is no America without labor, and to fleece the one is to rob the other.
My childhood-home I see again, and gladden with the view; and still as mem'ries crowd my brain, there's sadness in it, too.
Commitment is what transforms a promise into reality.
Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.
Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded. - Prohibition
Things work out best for those who make the best of the way things work out
These men ask for just the same thing: fairness, and fairness only. This is, so far as in my power, they, and all others, shall have.
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.
But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. - Soldier
By the fruit the tree is to be known. An evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit.
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.
What kills the skunk is the publicity it gives itself. - Publicity
If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one? - Faces
Let us renew our trust in God, and go forward without fear.
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. - Justice
The prudent, penniless beginner in the world labors for wages awhile, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for himself, then labors on his own account another while, and at length hires another new beginner to help him. This is the just and generous and prosperous system which opens the way to all—gives hope to all, and consequent energy and progress and improvement of condition to all.
I laugh because I must not cry. That is all. That is all. - Tears
Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm. - Control
No man has a good enough memory to make a successful liar. - Lies and Lying
The sense of obligation to continue is present in all of us. A duty to strive is the duty of us all. I felt a call to that duty. - Duty
If you wish to win a man over to your ideas, first make him your friend. - Persuasion
Destroy your enemy by making him your friend.
Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.
Whether or not the world would be vastly benefited by a total banishment from it of all intoxicating drinks seems not now an open question. Three-fourths of mankind confess the affirmative with their tongues, and I believe all the rest acknowledge it in their hearts. - Prohibition
Marriage is neither heaven nor hell, it is simply purgatory. - Marriage
Quarrel not at all. No man resolved to make the most of himself can spare time for personal contention. Still less can he afford to take all the consequences, including the vitiating of his temper and loss of self control. Yield larger things to which you can show no more than equal right; and yield lesser ones, though clearly your own. Better give your path to a dog than be bitten by him in contesting for the right. Even killing the dog would not cure the bite. - Quarrels
The best way to predict your future is to create it.
Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle. - Procrastination
Honest statesmanship is the wise employment of individual meanness for the public good. - Politicians and Politics
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. - Democracy
Everybody likes a compliment. - Compliments
In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war.
I fear explanations explanatory of things explained. - Ambiguity
He reminds me of the man who murdered both his parents, and then when the sentence was about to be pronounced, pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was orphan. - Crime and Criminals
If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee. - Humor
I am now the most miserable man living.
My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure. - Failure
The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.
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 may be engaged in. That everyone may receive at least a moderate education appears to be an objective of vital importance. - Education
Those who write clearly have readers, those who write obscurely have commentators. - Ambiguity
I am not concerned that you have fallen -- I am concerned that you arise. - Perseverance
Slavery is founded on the selfishness of man's nature -- opposition to it on his love of justice. These principles are in eternal antagonism; and when brought into collision so fiercely as slavery extension brings them, shocks and throes and convulsions must ceaselessly follow. - Slavery
Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed. He who molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or decisions possible or impossible to execute.
You can fool some of the people all the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time. - Deception
I have come to the conclusion never again to think of marrying, and for this reason, I can never be satisfied with anyone who would be blockhead enough to have me. - Marriage
The power confided in me will be used to hold, occupy and possess the property and places belonging to the government, and to collect the duties and imposts. - President
The unpleasant events you are passing from will not have been profitless to you.
I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for the day. - Choice
Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them? - Friends and Friendship
People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like. - Enjoyment
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. - Listening
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.
Seriously, I do not think I fit for the presidency. - Self-esteem
There are no bad pictures; that's just how your face looks sometimes.
Never change horses in midstream.
What is conservatism? It is not adherence to the old and tried, but against the new and untried? - Conservatives
The best way to destroy your enemy is to make him your friend. - Enemies
Bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.
My father taught me to work, but he did not teach me to love it. - Work
I care not for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.
We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it. - Character
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
If you look for the bad in people expecting to find it, you surely will.
If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six hours sharpening my ax.
Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves. - Tact and Tactfulness
Don't worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition. - Worry
The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.
Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived. - Peace
I can make a General in five minutes but a good horse is hard to replace. - Horses
Anyone can stand adversity but to test a person's character, give them power.
It is not my nature, when I see a people borne down by the weight of their shackles - the oppression of tyranny - to make their life more bitter by heaping upon them greater burdens; but rather would I do all in my power to raise the yoke than to add anything that would tend to crush them.
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.
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 the best life that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right and part from him when he goes wrong. - Truth
Friends, I agree with you in Providence; but I believe in the Providence of the most men, the largest purse, and the longest cannon. - Providence
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.
This struggle and scramble for office, for a way to live without work, will finally test the strength of our institutions.
Politicians are a set of men who have interests aside from the interests of the people and who, to say the most of them, are, taken as a mass, at least one long step removed from honest men.
We know nothing of what will happen in future, but by the analogy of experience. - Experience
Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. - Time and Time Management
I walk slowly, but I never walk backward. - Progress
A jury too often has at least one member more ready to hang the panel than to hang the traitor.
Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. - Ambition
Teach the children so that it will not be necessary to teach the adults.
I know that there is a God and I see a storm coming. If he has a place for me, I am ready.
We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain.
Beware of rashness, but with energy, and sleepless vigilance, go forward and give us victories. - Victory
The plainest print cannot be read through a gold eagle.
A person will be just about as happy as they make up their minds to be. - Happiness
If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. You may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. - Deceit
Wanting to work is so rare a merit that it should be encouraged. - Work
If each of billions or trillions of leaves and snowflakes can display its own unique individual identity, how much more so should not each human being?
The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time. - Future
To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men. - Silence
Do not destroy that immortal emblem of humanity, the Declaration of Independence. - Freedom
He who molds the public sentiment... makes statues and decisions possible or impossible to make. - Sentiment
I desire to so conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end, when I come to lay down the reins of power, 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. - Friends and Friendship
That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.
Die when I may, 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. - Death and Dying
Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration
Prohibition... goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes... A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.
Never regret what you don't write.
We can succeed only by concert. It is not, 'Can any of us imagine better,' but, 'Can we all do better?'
The purposes of the Almighty are perfect, and must prevail, though we erring mortals may fail to accurately perceive them in advance.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt. - Fools and Foolishness
If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. - Confidence
I am busily engaged in the study of the Bible. I believe it is God's word because it finds me where I am.
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.
I don't like to hear cut and dried sermons. No—when I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees.
You can have anything you want if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose.
What I do say is that no man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent. - Control
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.
We must ask where we are and whither we are tending. - Planning
Freedom is the last, best hope of earth. - Freedom
Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought. Let us have faith that right makes might and in that faith let us; to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it. - Freedom
The loss of enemies does not compensate for the loss of friends.
It is a sin to be silent when it is your duty to protest.
With high hope for the future, no prediction is ventured. - Hope
Do not worry; eat three square meals a day; say your prayers; be courteous to your creditors; keep your digestion good; exercise; go slow and easy. Maybe there are other things your special case requires to make you happy, but my friend, these I reckon will give you a good lift. - - Worry
Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. - History and Historians
If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, then ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference. - Critics and Criticism
No matter how much the cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens. - Fights and Fighting
If elected I shall be thankful; if not, it will be all the same. - Elections
I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice
Free labor has the inspiration of hope; pure slavery has no hope.
Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new after all.
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. - Action
It often requires more courage to dare to do right than to fear to do wrong.
Let reverence for the laws be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap. Let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges. Let it be written in primers, spelling books, and in almanacs. Let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in the courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation. - Law and Lawyers
Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?
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. I do the very best I know how -- the very best I can. And I mean to keep on doing it to the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me will not amount to anything. If the end brings me out all wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference. - Character
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.
Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them. - Commonplace
The greatest fine art of the future will be the making of a comfortable living from a small piece of land.
Hypocrite: the man who murdered both his parents... pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan.
Willpower was shaped by the guiding force of self-discipline.
If I care to listen to every criticism, let alone act on them, then this shop may as well be closed for all other businesses. I have learned to do my best, and if the end result is good then I do not care for any criticism, but if the end result is not good, then even the praise of ten angels would not make the difference.
No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent. - Democracy
To correct the evils, great and small, which spring from want of sympathy and from positive enmity among strangers, as nations or as individuals, is one of the highest functions of civilization. - Brotherhood
A universal feeling, whether well or ill founded, cannot be safely disregarded. - Public
I'm a slow walker, but I never walk back.
Ability may get you to the top but it's character that will keep you there.
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. - Judgment and Judges
With firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right.
I will prepare and some day my chance will come.
The rebellion thus began soon run into the present civil war; and, in certain respects, it began on very unequal terms between the parties. The insurgents had been preparing for it more than thirty years, while the government had taken no steps to resist them.
Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes crimes out of things that are not crimes.
Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing. - Resolution
Whatever you are, be a good one. - Greatness
Honor to the soldier and sailor everywhere, who bravely bears his country's cause. Honor, also, to the citizen who cares for his brother in the field and serves, as he best can, the same cause.
Avoid popularity if you would have peace. - Popularity
You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.
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. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights. - Capitalism
People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.
That some should be rich, shows that others may become rich, and, hence, is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. - Wealth
Having thus chosen our course, without guile and with pure purpose, let us renew our trust in God, and go forward without fear and with manly hearts.
It is difficult to make a man miserable while he feels he is worthy of himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him. - God
Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us dare to do our duty as we understand it. - Faith
Property is the fruit of labor; property is desirable; it is a positive good in the world. - Property
Truth is generally the best vindication against slander.
Love is the chain whereby to bind a child to its parents.
God must love the common man, he made so many of them. - Humankind
A government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.
With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die. - Laughter
It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today. - Responsibility
We hope all danger may be overcome; but to conclude that no danger may ever arise would itself be extremely dangerous.
The possibility that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.
I do the very best I know how, the very best I can and I mean to keep doing so until the end.
I destroy my enemy when I make him my friend. - Danger
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