Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States and one of the great American leaders.
His presidency was dominated by the American Civil War. Abraham Lincoln was born on 12 February 1809 near Hodgenville, Kentucky.
He was brought up in Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. His parents were poor pioneers and Lincoln was largely self-educated. In 1836, he qualified as a lawyer and went to work in a law practice in Springfield, Illinois.
He sat in the state legislature from 1834 to 1842 and in 1846 was elected to Congress, representing the Whig Party for a term. In 1856, he joined the new Republican Party and in 1860 he was asked to run as their presidential candidate.
In the presidential campaign, Lincoln made his opposition to slavery very clear. His victory provoked a crisis, with many southerners fearing that he would attempt to abolish slavery in the South. Seven southern states left the Union to form the Confederate States of America, also known as the Confederacy.
Four more joined later. Lincoln vowed to preserve the Union even if it meant war. Fighting broke out in April 1861. Lincoln always defined the Civil War as a struggle to save the Union, but in January 1863 he nonetheless issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves in areas still under Confederate control.
This was an important symbolic gesture that identified the Union’s struggle as a war to end slavery.
On 19 November 1863, Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg Address at the dedication of a cemetery at the site of the Battle of Gettysburg, a decisive Union victory that had taken place earlier in the year. On 9 April 1865, the Confederate general Robert E Lee surrendered, effectively ending the war.
It had lasted for more than four years and 600,000 Americans had died. Less than a week later, Lincoln was shot while attending a performance at Ford’s Theatre in Washington DC and died the next morning, 15 April 1865. His assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was a strong supporter of the Confederacy Whatever you are, be a good one
Those who look for the bad in people will surely find it.
The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next – Abraham Lincoln
How many legs does a dog have if you call his tail a leg? Four. Saying that a tail is a leg doesn’t make it a leg – Abraham Lincoln
All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother – Abraham Lincoln
I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better – Abraham Lincoln
Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be – Abraham Lincoln
Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth – Abraham Lincoln
I am a slow walker, but I never walk back – Abraham Lincoln
Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm – Abraham Lincoln
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
When I do good I feel good, when I do bad I feel bad, and that’s my religion – Abraham Lincoln
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
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
Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other – Abraham Lincoln
You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today – Abraham Lincoln
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
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
Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe – Abraham Lincoln
No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar – Abraham Lincoln
The ballot is stronger than the bullet – Abraham Lincoln
Labor is prior to, and independent of .You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today – Abraham Lincoln
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
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
Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe – Abraham Lincoln
No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar – Abraham Lincoln
The ballot is stronger than the bullet – Abraham Lincoln
The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next – Abraham Lincoln
How many legs does a dog have if you call his tail a leg? Four. Saying that a tail is a leg doesn’t make it a leg – Abraham Lincoln
All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother – Abraham Lincoln
I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better – Abraham Lincoln
Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be – Abraham Lincoln
Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth – Abraham Lincoln
I am a slow walker, but I never walk back – Abraham Lincoln
Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm – Abraham Lincoln
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
When I do good I feel good, when I do bad I feel bad, and that’s my religion – Abraham Lincoln
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
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
Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other – Abraham Lincoln
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
I will prepare and someday my chance will come – Abraham Lincoln
It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues – Abraham Lincoln
Don’t worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition – Abraham Lincoln
I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice – 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
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. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition is yet to be developed – Abraham Lincoln
My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure – Abraham Lincoln
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
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
Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it – Abraham Lincoln
The highest art is always the most religious, and the greatest artist is always a devout person – 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
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
Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends? Abraham Lincoln
The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly – Abraham Lincoln
Marriage is neither heaven nor hell, it is simply purgatory – Abraham Lincoln
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy – Abraham Lincoln
You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was – Abraham Lincoln
He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help – 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
That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well – Abraham Lincoln
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
If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee – Abraham Lincoln
No man is good enough to govern another man without the other’s consent – Abraham Lincoln
I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life – Abraham Lincoln
I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday – Abraham Lincoln
Avoid popularity if you would have peace – Abraham Lincoln
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
A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me – Abraham Lincoln
At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide – Abraham Lincoln
No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens – Abraham Lincoln
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. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of liberty – Abraham Lincoln
Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally – Abraham Lincoln
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
A house divided against itself cannot stand – Abraham Lincoln
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
Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed – Abraham Lincoln
We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it – Abraham Lincoln
Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored – Abraham Lincoln
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
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
A friend is one who has the same enemies as you have – Abraham Lincoln
All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years – Abraham Lincoln
Important principles may, and must, be inflexible – Abraham Lincoln
Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves – Abraham Lincoln
If there is anything that a man can do well, I say let him do it. Give him a chance – Abraham Lincoln
Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties – Abraham Lincoln
Standing as I do, with my hand upon this staff, and under the folds of the American flag, I ask you to stand by me so long as I stand by it – Abraham Lincoln
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
I care not much for a man’s religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it – Abraham Lincoln
We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth – Abraham Lincoln
There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law – Abraham Lincoln
I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day – Abraham Lincoln
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
I don’t know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be – Abraham Lincoln
Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We, of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation – Abraham Lincoln
As our case is new, we must think and act anew – Abraham Lincoln
True patriotism is better than the wrong kind of piety – Abraham Lincoln
Stand with anybody that stands right, stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong – Abraham Lincoln
I am rather inclined to silence – Abraham Lincoln
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
If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one? 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
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
I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right; but it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation may be on the Lord’s side – Abraham Lincoln
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
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
When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees – Abraham Lincoln
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
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 – 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
If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem – Abraham Lincoln
What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself – Abraham Lincoln
Gold is good in its place; but loving, brave, patriotic men are better than gold – Abraham Lincoln
I can make more generals, but horses cost money – Abraham Lincoln
Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new at all – Abraham Lincoln
With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die – Abraham Lincoln
Never regret what you don’t write – Abraham Lincoln
These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert to fleece the people; and now that they have got into a quarrel with themselves, we are called upon to appropriate the people’s money to settle the quarrel – Abraham Lincoln
To give victory to the right, not bloody bullets, but peaceful ballots only, are necessary – Abraham Lincoln
I was born and have ever remained in the most humble walks of life – Abraham Lincoln
There is another old poet whose name I do not now remember who said, ‘Truth is the daughter of Time. ‘ Abraham Lincoln
The leading rule for the lawyer, as for the man of every calling, is diligence – Abraham Lincoln
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
Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them – Abraham Lincoln
In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all; and to the young, it comes with bitterest agony because it takes them unawares. I have had experience enough to know what I say – Abraham Lincoln
If you think you can slander a woman into loving you, or a man into voting for you, try it till you are satisfied – Abraham Lincoln
Don’t swap horses in crossing a stream – Abraham Lincoln
Knavery and flattery are blood relations – Abraham Lincoln
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 – Abraham Lincoln
Some single mind must be master, else there will be no agreement in anything – Abraham Lincoln
If the great American people will only keep their temper, on both sides of the line, the troubles will come to an end, and the question which now distracts the country will be settled just as surely as all other difficulties of like character which have originated in this government have been adjusted – Abraham Lincoln
Hold on with a bulldog grip, and chew and choke as much as possible – Abraham Lincoln
We think the Dred Scott decision is erroneous. We know the court that made it has often overruled its own decisions, and we shall do what we can to have it overrule this – Abraham Lincoln
Every one desires to live long, but no one would be old – Abraham Lincoln
I pass my life in preventing the storm from blowing down the tent, and I drive in the pegs as fast as they are pulled up – Abraham Lincoln
The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the angels of our nature – Abraham Lincoln
If a man had more than one life, I think a little hanging would not hurt this one; but after he is once dead, we cannot bring him back, no matter how sorry we may be; so the boy shall be pardoned – Abraham Lincoln
If ever I feel the soul within me elevate and expand to those dimensions not wholly unworthy of its Almighty Architect, it is when I contemplate the cause of my country, deserted by all the world beside, and I standing up boldly and lone and hurling defiance at her victorious oppressors – Abraham Lincoln
With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed – Abraham Lincoln
The point – the power to hurt – of all figures lies in the truthfulness of their application – 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
Everybody likes a compliment – Abraham Lincoln
I hold that while man exists, it is his duty to improve not only his own condition, but to assist in ameliorating mankind – Abraham Lincoln
In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free – honorable alike in that we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth – Abraham Lincoln
I have great respect for the semicolon; it is a mighty handy little fellow – Abraham Lincoln
I am humble Abraham Lincoln
I have been solicited by my friends to become a candidate for the Legislature. My politics are short and sweet, like the old woman’s dance – Abraham Lincoln
A living dog is better than a dead lion. ‘ Judge Douglas, if not a dead lion for this work, is at least a caged and toothless one. How can he oppose the advances of slavery? He don’t care anything about it – Abraham Lincoln
I have talked with great men, and I do not see how they differ from others – Abraham Lincoln
The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed – Abraham Lincoln
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
I will prepare and someday my chance will come – Abraham Lincoln
It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues – Abraham Lincoln
Don’t worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition – Abraham Lincoln
I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice – 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
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. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition is y et to be developed – Abraham Lincoln
My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure – Abraham Lincoln
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
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
Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it – Abraham Lincoln
The highest art is always the most religious, and the greatest artist is always a devout person – 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
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
Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends? Abraham Lincoln
The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly – Abraham Lincoln
Marriage is neither heaven nor hell, it is simply purgatory – Abraham Lincoln
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy – Abraham Lincoln
You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was – Abraham Lincoln
He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help – 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
That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well – Abraham Lincoln
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
If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee – Abraham Lincoln
No man is good enough to govern another man without the other’s consent – Abraham Lincoln
I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life – Abraham Lincoln
I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday – Abraham Lincoln
Avoid popularity if you would have peace – Abraham Lincoln
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
A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me – Abraham Lincoln
At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide – Abraham Lincoln
No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens – Abraham Lincoln
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. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of liberty – Abraham Lincoln
Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally – Abraham Lincoln
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
A house divided against itself cannot stand – Abraham Lincoln
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 Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed – Abraham Lincoln
We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it – Abraham Lincoln
Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored – Abraham Lincoln
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
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
A friend is one who has the same enemies as you have – Abraham Lincoln
All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years – Abraham Lincoln
Important principles may, and must t, be inflexible – Abraham Lincoln
Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves – Abraham Lincoln
If there is anything that a man can do well, I say let him do it. Give him a chance – Abraham Lincoln
Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties – Abraham Lincoln
Standing as I do, with my hand upon this staff, and under the folds of the American flag, I ask you to stand by me so long as I stand by it – Abraham Lincoln
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
I care not much for a man’s religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it – Abraham Lincoln
We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth – Abraham Lincoln
There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law – Abraham Lincoln
I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day – Abraham Lincoln
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
I don’t know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be – Abraham Lincoln
Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We, of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation – Abraham Lincoln
As our case is new, we must think and act anew – Abraham Lincoln
True patriotism is better than the wrong kind of piety – Abraham
Stand with anybody that stands right, stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong – Abraham Lincoln
I am rather inclined to silence – Abraham Lincoln
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
If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one? 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
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
I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right; but it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation may be on the Lord’s side – Abraham Lincoln
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
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
When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees – Abraham Lincoln
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
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 – 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
If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem – Abraham Lincoln
What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself – Abraham Lincoln
Gold is good in its place; but loving, brave, patriotic men are better than gold – Abraham Lincoln
I can make more generals, but horses cost money – Abraham Lincoln
Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new at all – Abraham Lincoln
With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die – Abraham Lincoln
Never regret what you don’t write – Abraham Lincoln
These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert to fleece the people; and now that they have got into a quarrel with themselves, we are called upon to appropriate the people’s money to settle the quarrel – Abraham Lincoln
To give victory to the right, not bloody bullets, but peaceful ballots only, are necessary – Abraham Lincoln
I was born and have ever remained in the most humble walks of life – Abraham Lincoln
There is another old poet whose name I do not now remember who said, ‘Truth is the daughter of Time. ‘ Abraham Lincoln
The leading rule for the lawyer, as for the man of every calling, is diligence – Abraham Lincoln
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
Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them – Abraham Lincoln
In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all; and to the young, it comes with bitterest agony because it takes them unawares. I have had experience enough to know what I say – Abraham Lincoln
If you think you can slander a woman into loving you, or a man into voting for you, try it till you are satisfied – Abraham Lincoln
Don’t swap horses in crossing a stream – Abraham Lincoln
Knavery and flattery are blood relations – Abraham Lincoln
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 – Abraham Lincoln
Some single mind must be master, else there will be no agreement in anything – Abraham Lincoln
If the great American people will only keep their temper, on both sides of the line, the troubles will come to an end, and the question which now distracts the country will be settled just as surely as all other difficulties of like character which have originated in this government have been adjusted – Abraham Lincoln
Hold on with a bulldog grip, and chew and choke as much as possible – Abraham Lincoln
We think the Dred Scott decision is erroneous. We know the court that made it has often overruled its own decisions, and we shall do what we can to have it overrule this – Abraham Lincoln
Every one desires to live long, but no one would be old – Abraham Lincoln
I pass my life in preventing the storm from blowing down the tent, and I drive in the pegs as fast as they are pulled up – Abraham Lincoln
The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the angels of our nature – Abraham Lincoln
If a man had more than one life, I think a little hanging would not hurt this one; but after he is once dead, we cannot bring him back, no matter how sorry we may be; so the boy shall be pardoned – Abraham Lincoln
If ever I feel the soul within me elevate and expand to those dimensions not wholly unworthy of its Almighty Architect, it is when I contemplate the cause of my country, deserted by all the world beside, and I standing up boldly and lone and hurling defiance at her victorious oppressors – Abraham Lincoln
With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed – Abraham Lincoln
The point – the power to hurt – of all figures lies in the truthfulness of their application – 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
Everybody likes a compliment – Abraham Lincoln
I hold that while man exists, it is his duty to improve not only his own condition, but to assist in ameliorating mankind – Abraham Lincoln
In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free – honorable alike in that we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth – Abraham Lincoln
I have great respect for the semicolon; it is a mighty handy little fellow – Abraham Lincoln
I have been solicited by my friends to become a candidate for the Legislature. My politics are short and sweet, like the old woman’s dance – Abraham Lincoln
A living dog is better than a dead lion. ‘ Judge Douglas, if not a dead lion for this work, is at least a caged and toothless one. How can he oppose the advances of slavery? He don’t care anything about it – Abraham Lincoln
I have talked with great men, and I do not see how they differ from others – Abraham Lincoln
The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed – Abraham Lincoln