Abraham Lincoln Quotes

Biography

Type: 16th President of the United States

Born: February 12, 1809

Died: April 15, 1865 (aged 56)

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States. He preserved the Union during the U.S. Civil War and brought about the emancipation of slaves.

Abraham Lincoln Quotes

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.

If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?

The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is why he made so many of them.

Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?

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 up to what light I have.

Writing, the art of communicating thoughts to the mind through the eye, is the great invention of the world...enabling us to converse with the dead, the absent, and the unborn, at all distances of time and space.

Writing is the great invention of the world.

If this country is ever demoralized, it will come from trying to live without work.

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

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.

The best way to predict your future is to create it

Whatever you are, be a good one.

And in the end it is not the years in your life that count, it's the life in your years.

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.

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

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

If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. It is true that you may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. -Speech at Clinton, Illinois, September 8, 1854.

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.

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

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

No man is poor who has a Godly mother.

A house divided cannot stand.

in times like the present, men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be responsible through time and eternity.

Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.

Take all that you can of this book upon reason, and the balance on faith, and you will live and die a happier man. (When a skeptic expressed surprise to see him reading a Bible)

In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong. God cannot be for, and against the same thing at the same time.

In regards to this great Book [the Bible], I have but to say it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this Book. But for it we could not know right from wrong. All things most desirable for man's welfare, here and hereafter, are found portrayed in it.

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.

I laugh because I must not cry, that is all, that is all.

The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
-as quoted in THE RIVER OF WINGED DREAMS

All I have learned, I learned from books.

A capacity, and taste, for reading, gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others. It is the key, or one of the keys, to the already solved problems. And not only so. It gives a relish, and facility, for successfully pursuing the [yet] unsolved ones.

Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people can be engaged in.

The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation is the philosophy of government in the next.

When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion.

If there is anything that links the human to the divine, it is the courage to stand by a principle when everybody else rejects it.

Let no feeling of discouragement prey
upon you, and in the end you
are sure to succeed.

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.

I shall adopt new Muse as fast as they appear to be true Muse.

The only way to predict the future is to create it.

I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had no where else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day.

It is difficult to make a man miserable while he feels worthy of himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him.

My Best Friend is a person who will give me a book I have not read.

Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new after all.

Get books, sit yourself down anywhere, and go to reading them yourself.

The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who'll git me a book I ain't read. (ca. 1825; in Sandburg, Prairie Years, I, p. 71)

I'm a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn't have the heart to let him down.

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

My greatest concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are concerned with your failure.

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

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.

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." &
“These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people”
– –

I may be wrong in regard to any or all of them; but holding it a sound maxim, that it is better to be only sometimes right, than at all times wrong, so soon as I discover my opinions to be erroneous, I shall be ready to renounce them.

There are no bad pictures; that's just how your face looks sometimes.

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.

Anybody will do for you, but not for me. I must have somebody.

It will not do to investigate the subject of religion too closely, as it is apt to lead to infidelity.

Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their violation by others.

I don't know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.

We shall need all the anti-slavery feeling in the country, and more; you can go home and try to bring the people to your views, and you may say anything you like about me, if that will help... When the hour comes for dealing with slavery, I trust I will be willing to do my duty though it cost my life.

Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves

Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.

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.

In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free - honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth

I fear you do not fully comprehend the danger of abridging the liberties of the people. Nothing but the very sternest necessity can ever justify it. A government had better go to the very extreme of toleration, than to do aught that could be construed into an interference with, or to jeopardize in any degree, the common rights of its citizens.

The better part of one's life consists of his friendships.

If frienship is your weakest point then you are the strongest person in the world.

If Friendship is your weakest point, you are the strongest person in the world.

If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend.

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

In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed. Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes, or pronounces judicial decisions.

It often requires more courage to dare to do right than to fear to do wrong.

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