Abraham Lincoln

Whatever you are, be a good one – Abraham Lincoln

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves – Abraham Lincoln

Character is like a tree and reputation its shadow. The shadow is what we think it is and the tree is the real thing. – Abraham Lincoln

The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend. – Abraham Lincoln

When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion. – Abraham Lincoln

You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your father was. – Abraham Lincoln

Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle. – Abraham Lincoln

People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be. – 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, and beer. – Abraham Lincoln

No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar. – Abraham Lincoln

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power. – Abraham Lincoln

I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better. – Abraham Lincoln

If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I would spend six hours sharpening my axe. – Abraham Lincoln – Abraham Lincoln

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other. – Abraham Lincoln

Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them? – Abraham Lincoln

Don’t worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition. – Abraham Lincoln

Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new at all. – Abraham Lincoln

I cannot bring myself to believe that any human being lives who would do me any harm. – Abraham Lincoln

Resolve to be honest at all events; and if, in your own judgement, you cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without being a lawyer. Choose some other occupation. – Abraham Lincoln

It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt. – Abraham Lincoln

I am a slow walker, but I never walk back. – Abraham Lincoln

You must not wait to be brought forward by the older men….
Do you suppose that I should ever have got into notice if I had waited to be hunted up and pushed forward by older men? – Abraham Lincoln

The Democrats of today hold the liberty of one man to be absolutely nothing when in conflict with another man’s right of property. Republicans, on the contrary, are for both the man and the dollar, but in cases of conflict, the man before the dollar. – Abraham Lincoln

I don’t know who my grandfather was. I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be. – Abraham Lincoln

It is true that while I hold myself without mock modesty the humblest of all individuals that have ever been elevated to the Presidency, I have a more difficult task to perform than any one of them. – Abraham Lincoln

We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses. – Abraham Lincoln

My best friend is a person who will give me a book I have not read. – Abraham Lincoln

I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being. – Abraham Lincoln

Republicans are for both the man and the dollar, but in case of conflict the man before the dollar. – Abraham Lincoln

The worst thing you can do for anyone you care about is anything that they can do on their own. – Abraham Lincoln

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

Free labor has the inspiration of hope; pure slavery has no hope. The power of hope upon human exertion and happiness is wonderful. – Abraham Lincoln

It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues. – Abraham Lincoln

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. – Abraham Lincoln

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! – Abraham Lincoln

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.- Abraham Lincoln

Half finished work generally proves to be labor lost.- Abraham Lincoln

You cannot build character and courage by taking away man’s initiative and independence. – Abraham Lincoln

And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years. – Abraham Lincoln

The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time. – Abraham Lincoln

That some achieve great success is proof to all that others can achieve it as well. – Abraham Lincoln

No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent. – Abraham Lincoln

If this is coffee, please bring me some tea. But if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.
– Abraham Lincoln

Military glory – the attractive rainbow that rises in showers of blood. – Abraham Lincoln

If any man tells you he loves America, yet hates labor, he is a liar.
If any man tells you he trusts America, yet fears labor, he is a fool.
– Abraham Lincoln

No matter how much the cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.
– Abraham Lincoln

Let us at all times remember that all American citizens are brothers of a common country,
and should dwell together in bonds of fraternal feeling. – Abraham Lincoln

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but
you cannot fool all of the people all the time. – Abraham Lincoln

I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors, and I shall adopt new views so fast as
they shall appear to be true views. – Abraham Lincoln

The resources, advantages, and powers of the American people are very great, and they have, consequently, succeeded to equally great responsibilities. It seems to have devolved upon them to test whether a government established on the principles of human freedom can be maintained against an effort to build one upon the exclusive foundation of human bondage.
– Abraham Lincoln

It shall be my endeavor to preserve the peace of this country so far as it can possibly be done, consistently with the maintenance of the institutions of the country. With my consent, or without my great displeasure, this country shall never witness the shedding of one drop of blood in fraternal strife.
– Abraham Lincoln

Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people.
– Abraham Lincoln

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is not democracy.
– Abraham Lincoln

How miserably things seem to be arranged in this world. If we have no friends, we have no pleasure; and if we have them, we are sure to lose them and be doubly pained by the loss.
– Abraham Lincoln

Prohibition… goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control mans’ appetite through legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not even crimes.
– Abraham Lincoln

We are a great empire. We are 80 years old. We stand at once the wonder and admiration of the whole world, and we must enquire what it is that has given us so much prosperity, and we shall understand that to give up that one thing would be to give up all future prosperity. This cause is that every man can make himself. It has been said that such a race of prosperity has been run nowhere else.
– Abraham Lincoln

He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.
– Abraham Lincoln

If the rotten democracy shall be beaten in 1860, it has to be done by the North; no human invention can deprive them of the South. I do not deny that there are as good men in the South as the North; and I guess we will elect one of them if he will allow us to do so on Republican ground.
– Abraham Lincoln

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.
– Abraham Lincoln

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.
– Abraham Lincoln

You know that it has not been my custom, since I started on the route to Washington, to make long speeches; 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.
– Abraham Lincoln

You say A. is white, and B. is black. It is color, then; the lighter having the right to enslave the darker? Take care. By this rule, you are to be slave to the first man with a fairer skin
than your own.
– Abraham Lincoln

I have often wished that I was a more devout man than I am.
– Abraham Lincoln

We want, and must have, a national policy as to slavery which deals with it as being a wrong.
– Abraham Lincoln

Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.
– Abraham Lincoln

Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.
– Abraham Lincoln

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

To ease another’s heartache is to forget one’s own.
– Abraham Lincoln

I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.
– Abraham Lincoln

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.
– Abraham Lincoln

Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time.
– Abraham Lincoln

Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way.
– Abraham Lincoln

No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kitten.
– Abraham Lincoln

A man who denies to other men equality of rights is hardly worthy of freedom; but I would give even to him all the rights which I claim for myself.
– Abraham Lincoln

I am slow to learn and slow to forget that which I have learned. My mind is like a piece of steel, very hard to scratch anything on it and almost impossible after you get it there to rub it out.
– Abraham Lincoln

If all men were just, there still would be some, though not so much, need of government.
– Abraham Lincoln

Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that “all men are created equal.” We now practically read it “all men are created equal, except negroes.” When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty – to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.
– Abraham Lincoln

With all the fearful strain that is upon me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die.
– Abraham Lincoln

If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.
– Abraham Lincoln

It is my pleasure that my children are free, happy and unrestrained by parental tyranny. Love is the chain to lock a child to its parent.
– Abraham Lincoln

Those who look for the bad in people will surely find it.
– Abraham Lincoln

Near eighty years ago we began by declaring that all men are created equal; but now from that beginning we have run down to the other declaration, that for some men to enslave others is a “sacred right of self-government.” These principles cannot stand together. They are as opposite as God and Mammon; and whoever holds to the one must despise the other.
– Abraham Lincoln

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.
– Abraham Lincoln

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 purpose – and you allow him to make war at pleasure.
– Abraham Lincoln

With educated people, I suppose, punctuation is a matter of rule; with me it is a matter of feeling. But I must say that I have a great respect for the simicolon; it’s a very useful little
chap.
– Abraham Lincoln

When the white man governs himself, that is self-government; but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self-government – that is despotism.
– Abraham Lincoln

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 insufficient for that day.
– Abraham Lincoln

Hypocrite: The man who murdered his parents, and then pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan.
– Abraham Lincoln

You can better succeed with the ballot. You can peaceably then redeem the government and preserve the liberties of mankind through your votes and voice and moral influence… Let there be peace. Revolutionize throught he ballot box and restore the government once more to the affections and hearts of men by making it express, as it was intended to do, the highest spirit of justice and liberty.
– Abraham Lincoln, Speech to Springfield abolitionists

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.
– Abraham Lincoln

When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind, unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted.
– Abraham Lincoln

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

Constituted as man is, he has positive need of occasional recreation, and whatever can give him this, associated with virtue and advantage and free from vice and disadvantage, is a positive good.
– Abraham Lincoln

All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.
– Abraham Lincoln

I am not accustomed to the use of language of eulogy; I have never studied the art of paying compliments to women; but I must say that if all that has been said by orators and poets since the creation of the world in praise of women were applied to the women of America, it would not do them justice for their conduct during this war. I will close by saying, God bless the women of America!
– Abraham Lincoln

Do good to those who hate you and turn their ill will to friendship.
– Abraham Lincoln

Whatever woman may cast her lot with mine, should any ever do so, it is my intention to do all in my power to make her happy and contented; and there is nothing I can imagine that would make me more unhappy than to fail in the effort.
– Abraham Lincoln

Gentlemen, you had better come up and shake my hand while you can – honors elevate some men.
– Abraham Lincoln

Doesn’t it strike you as queer that I, who couldn’t cut the head off of a chicken, and who was sick at the sight of blood, should be cast into the middle of a great war, with blood flowing all about me?
– Abraham Lincoln

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.
– Abraham Lincoln

There is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness.
– Abraham Lincoln

When first my father settled here,
‘Twas then the frontier line:
The panther’s scream filled night with fear,
And bears preyed on the swine.
– Abraham Lincoln, 1846

To sin by silence, when they should protest, makes cowards of men.
– Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln is my name,
And with my pen I wrote the same,
I write in both haste and speed,
and left it here for fools to read.
– Abraham Lincoln, from his boyhood sum book

You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry.
– Abraham Lincoln

I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.
– Abraham Lincoln

My politics are short and sweet, like the old woman’s dance.
– Abraham Lincoln

I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.
– Abraham Lincoln

My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.
– Abraham Lincoln