#ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ NEWRANDOM

Abraham Lincoln

16th President of the United States; saved the Union during the American Civil War and emancipated the slaves; was assassinated by Booth (1809-1865)

Update this biography »

click to add your vote (69 votes)

Famous quotes by Abraham Lincoln:Sort:PopularA - Z

We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield 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.
I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me seemed insufficient for the day.
Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?
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.
Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal...We here highly resolve that the 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, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent.
With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die.
Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it the tree is the real thing.
I believe it is an established maxim in morals that he who makes an assertion without knowing whether it is true or false is guilty of falsehood, and the accidental truth of the assertion does not justify or excuse him.
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.
I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.
I will prepare and some day my chance will come.
If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six sharpening my axe.
If this is coffee, please bring me some tea but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.
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.
It is said an eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him with 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
Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.
Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.
When I do good, I feel good when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion.
When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. And that is my religion.
When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and true maxim that 'a drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.' So with men. If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches his heart, which, say what he will, is the great highroad to his reason, and which, once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing him of the justice of your cause, if indeed that cause is really a good one.
I desire so to 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 me.
If you look for the bad in people, you will surely find it.
Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.
The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend.
'Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.
Find out what whiskey he drinks and send all of my generals a case, if it will get the same results. - in reply to comments about General Grant's drinking problems
All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.
Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived.
He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met.
I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crises. The great point is to bring them the real facts.
If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.
Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them
Corporations have been enthroned .... An era of corruption in high places will follow and the money power will endeavor to prolong its reign by working on the prejudices of the people... until wealth is aggregated in a few hands ... and the Republic is destroyed.
You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.
Whatever you are, be a good one.
I will study and get ready, and perhaps my chance will come.
...Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.
People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.
If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.
If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend.
All my life I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever the flower would grow in thought and mind.
Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.
Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?
And in the end it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes his aid against the other.... The prayers of both could not be answered--that of neither has been answered fully.
Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.
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.
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.
He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help.
Hypocrite The man who murdered his parents, and then pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan.
I am for those means which will give the greatest good to the greatest number.
I am not concerned that you have fallen; I am concerned that you arise.
I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.
I don't know who my grandfather was I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.
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.
I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.
If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men we must live through all time, or die by suicide.
If I only had an hour to chop down a tree, I would spend the first 45 minutes sharpening my axe.
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.
If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?
If there is anything that a man can do well, I say let him do it. Give him a chance.
In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all... Perfect relief is not possible, except with time. You cannot now realize that you will ever feel better... And yet this is a mistake. You are sure to be happy again.
It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.
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.
It is difficult to make a man miserable while he feels worthy of himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him.
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.
It often requires more courage to dare to do right than to fear to do wrong.
Let me not be understood as saying that there are no bad laws, nor that grievances may not arise for the redress of which no legal provisions have been made. I mean to say no such thing. But I do mean to say that although bad laws, if they exist, should be repealed as soon as possible, still, while they continue in force, for the sake of example they should be religiously observed.
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.
Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
My father taught me to work he did not teach me to love it.
My father taught me to work; he did not teach me to love it.
Neither Heaven nor Hell. It is simply Purgatory.
No man resolved to make the most of himself has time to waste on personal contention.
No matter how much the cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.
People are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like.
Quarrel not at all. No man resolved to make the most of himself can spare time for personal contention.
That some should be rich, shows that others may become rich, and, hence, is just encouragement to industry and enterprise.
The ballot is stronger than the bullet.
The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.
The better part of one's life consists of his friendships.
The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is why he makes so many of them.
The provision of the Constitution giving the war-making power to Congress was dictated, as I understand it, by the following reasons. Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. This, our Convention understood to be the most oppressive of all Kingly oppressions; and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us.
The worst thing you can do for those you love is the things they could and should do themselves.
Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.
This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can excercise their constitutional right of amending it, or excercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.
Those who would deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, cannot long retain it.
To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.
Truth is generally the best vindication against slander.
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.
We are not enemies but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic cords of memory shall swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of nature.
What is conservativism? Is it not the aherence to the old and tried against the new and untried?
When you have got an elephant by the hind leg, and he is trying to run away, it's best to let him run.
With the catching end the pleasures of the chase.
You may deceive all the people part of the time, and part of the people all the time, but not all the people all the time.

Missing a quote of Abraham Lincoln?

Know another good quote of Abraham Lincoln? Don't keep it to yourself!

The Web's Largest Resource for

Famous Quotes & Sayings

A Member Of The STANDS4 Network