Abraham Lincoln
16th President of the United States, who led the nation through the Civil War.
Quotes
Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.
SourceLetter to Isham Reavis (5 November 1855) · via Wikiquote
When I do good I feel good, when I do bad I feel bad, and that's my religion.
SourceQuoted in 3:439 Herndon's Lincoln (1890), p. 439 · via Wikiquote
Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.
SourceThe Gettysburg Address (1863) · via Wikiquote
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.
SourceSecond Inaugural Address (1865) · via Wikiquote
I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.
SourceAttributed to Lincoln by Joseph Gillespie in letter to The Herald and Torch Light (March 15, 1876) · via Wikiquote
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.
SourceDefinition of Democracy; see Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, vol. 2 · via Wikiquote
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
SourceThe House Divided speech (1858) · via Wikiquote
I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.
SourceIncluded in Portrait-Life of Lincoln (1910) by Francis T Miller · via Wikiquote
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.
SourceAddress Delivered in Candidacy for the State Legislature (9 March 1832) · via Wikiquote
I don't know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.
SourceAs quoted in The Early Life of Abraham Lincoln (1896) by Ida Tarbell · via Wikiquote
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.
SourceThe Lyceum Address (1838) · via Wikiquote
Important principles may, and must, be inflexible.
SourceLast public address (1865) · via Wikiquote
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.
SourceThe Gettysburg Address (1863) · via Wikiquote
Stand with anybody that stands right, stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong.
SourceSpeech at Peoria, Illinois (1854) · via Wikiquote
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.
SourceRecalled in a letter from Joshua Speed in Herndon's Lincoln (1890), p. 527 · via Wikiquote
Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored.
SourceThe Lyceum Address (1838) · via Wikiquote
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.
SourceSecond State of the Union address (1862) · via Wikiquote
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.
SourceThe House Divided speech (1858) · via Wikiquote
I am rather inclined to silence.
SourceAutobiographical Sketch Written for Jesse W. Fell (1859) · via Wikiquote
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.
SourceThe Gettysburg Address (1863) · via Wikiquote
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.
SourceSpeech in the United States House of Representatives (12 January 1848) · via Wikiquote
Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.
SourceSpeech at Kalamazoo, Michigan (27 August 1856), Collected Works 1:391 · via Wikiquote
With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.
SourceFirst debate with Stephen Douglas Ottawa, Illinois (21 August 1858) · via Wikiquote
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.
SourceCommercial version · via Wikiquote
There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law.
SourceThe Lyceum Address (1838) · via Wikiquote
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.
SourceSpeech at Peoria, Illinois (1854) · via Wikiquote
It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in that Declaration of Independence.
SourceSpeech in Independence Hall (1861) · via Wikiquote
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.
SourceAs quoted in The Life and Public Service of Abraham Lincoln (1865) by Henry J. Raymond · via Wikiquote
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.
SourceThe House Divided speech (1858) · via Wikiquote
When Southern people tell us they are no more responsible for the origin of slavery than we are, I acknowledge the fact. When it is said that the institution exists, and that it is very difficult to get rid of it in any satisfactory way, I can understand and appreciate the saying.
SourceSpeech at Peoria, Illinois (1854) · via Wikiquote
Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this.
SourceFragment, Notes for a Law Lecture (1 July 1850?), cited in Abraham Lincoln · via Wikiquote
I hold that while man exists, it is his duty to improve not only his own condition, but to assist in ameliorating mankind.
SourceAutobiographical Sketch Written for Jesse W. Fell (1859) · via Wikiquote
Concede that the new government of Louisiana is only to what it should be, as the egg is to the fowl; we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it.
SourceLast public address (1865) · via Wikiquote
No policy that does not rest upon some philosophical public opinion can be permanently maintained.
SourceAllow the humblest man an equal chance (1860) · via Wikiquote
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.
SourceLetter, while US Congressman, to his friend and law-partner William H · via Wikiquote
A capacity, and taste, for reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others.
SourceAddress before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society (1859) · via Wikiquote
I believe this government cannot endure permanently, half slave and half free.
SourceThe House Divided speech (1858) · via Wikiquote
I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember when I did not so think and feel.
Source"If Slavery Is Not Wrong, Nothing Is Wrong" (1864) · via Wikiquote
We can succeed only by concert. It is not, 'Can any of us imagine better,' but, 'Can we all do better?'
SourceSecond State of the Union address (1862) · via Wikiquote
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.
It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.
Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.
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.
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.
Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.
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.
I don't like that man. I must get to know him better.
The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.
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.
Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.
No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.
Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.
The ballot is stronger than the bullet.
I will prepare and some day my chance will come.
Don't worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.
I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.
My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.
My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.
Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it.
He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.
Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?
I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.
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.
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.
That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.
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.
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.
The highest art is always the most religious, and the greatest artist is always a devout person.
No man is good enough to govern another man without the other's consent.
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.
We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.
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.
A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me.
Avoid popularity if you would have peace.
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.
A friend is one who has the same enemies as you have.
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.
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 Buonaparte 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.
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.
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.
Hold on with a bulldog grip, and chew and choke as much as possible.
If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?
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.
Never regret what you don't write.
What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.
Everybody likes a compliment.
Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.
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.
True patriotism is better than the wrong kind of piety.
Repeal the Missouri Compromise - repeal all compromises - repeal the Declaration of Independence - repeal all past history, you still cannot repeal human nature. It will be the abundance of man's heart that slavery extension is wrong; and out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth will continue to speak.
With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die.
Every one desires to live long, but no one would be old.
The leading rule for the lawyer, as for the man of every calling, is diligence.
I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.
Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.
When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees.
Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.
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.
My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.
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.
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.
Knavery and flattery are blood relations.
I was born and have ever remained in the most humble walks of life.
I have great respect for the semicolon; it is a mighty handy little fellow.
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.
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.
Gold is good in its place; but loving, brave, patriotic men are better than gold.
If the people of Utah shall peacefully form a State Constitution tolerating polygamy, will the Democracy admit them into the Union?
That I am not a member of any Christian church is true; but I have never denied the truth of the Scriptures, and I have never spoken with intentional disrespect of religion in general, or of any denomination of Christians in particular.
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.
If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.
Don't swap horses in crossing a stream.
Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors.
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.
The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.
When you have got an elephant by the hind legs and he is trying to run away, it's best to let him run.
I can make more generals, but horses cost money.
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.
Extemporaneous speaking should be practiced and cultivated. It is the lawyer's avenue to the public. However able and faithful he may be in other respects, people are slow to bring him business if he cannot make a speech.
As our case is new, we must think and act anew.
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.
If there is anything that a man can do well, I say let him do it. Give him a chance.
'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.
I go to assume a task more difficult than that which devolved upon Washington. Unless the great God, who assisted him, shall be with me and aid me, I must fail; but if the same omniscient mind and almighty arm that directed and protected him shall guide and support me, I shall not fail - I shall succeed.
He who would be no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves and, under a just God, cannot long retain it.
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.
I understand a ship to be made for the carrying and preservation of the cargo, and so long as the ship can be saved, with the cargo, it should never be abandoned. This Union likewise should never be abandoned unless it fails and the possibility of its preservation shall cease to exist, without throwing passengers and cargo overboard.
I should like to know if, taking this old Declaration of Independence, which declares that all men are equal upon principle, you begin making exceptions to it, where will you stop? If one man says it does not mean a Negro, why not another say it does not mean some other man?
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.
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.
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.
The man who could go to Africa and rob her of her children, and then sell them into interminable bondage, with no other motive than that which is furnished by dollars and cents, is so much worse than the most depraved murderer that he can never receive pardon at my hand.
Some single mind must be master, else there will be no agreement in anything.
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.
The assertion that 'all men are created equal' was of no practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain and it was placed in the Declaration not for that, but for future use.
For my part, I desire to see the time when education - and by its means, morality, sobriety, enterprise and industry - shall become much more general than at present, and should be gratified to have it in my power to contribute something to the advancement of any measure which might have a tendency to accelerate the happy period.
I have said a hundred times, and I have no inclination to take it back, that I believe there is no right, and ought to be no inclination in the people of the free States to enter into the slave States, and to interfere with the question of slavery at all. I have said that always.
It is rather for us here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.
I think that slavery is wrong, morally, socially and politically. I desire that it should be no further spread in these United States, and I should not object if it should gradually terminate in the whole Union.
The legal right of the Southern people to reclaim their fugitives I have constantly admitted. The legal right of Congress to interfere with their institution in the states, I have constantly denied.
There is another old poet whose name I do not now remember who said, 'Truth is the daughter of Time.'
In so far as the government lands can be disposed of, I am in favor of cutting up the wild lands into parcels so that every poor man may have a home.
I hope to stand firm enough to not go backward, and yet not go forward fast enough to wreck the country's cause.
I learned a great many years ago that in a fight between husband and wife, a third party should never get between the woman's skillet and the man's ax-helve.
Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new at all.
Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets.
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.
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.
The people will save their government, if the government itself will allow them.
It is a quality of revolutions not to go by old lines or old laws, but to break up both and make new ones.
He who molds the public sentiment... makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to make.
Being elected to Congress, though I am very grateful to our friends for having done it, has not pleased me as much as I expected.
Illinois surpasses every other spot of equal extent upon the face of the globe in fertility of soil and in the proportionable amount of the same which is sufficiently level for actual cultivation.
Upon the subjects of which I have treated, I have spoken as I have thought. I may be wrong in regard to any or all of them; but, holding it a sound maxim that it is better only sometimes to be right than at all times to be wrong, so soon as I discover my opinions to be erroneous, I shall be ready to renounce them.
Nothing new here, except my marrying, which to me is a matter of profound wonder.
It has so happened in all ages of the world that some have labored, and others have, without labor, enjoyed a large proportion of the fruits.
I have talked with great men, and I do not see how they differ from others.
If I like a thing, it just sticks after once reading it or hearing it.
If you think you can slander a woman into loving you, or a man into voting for you, try it till you are satisfied.
My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families - second families, perhaps I should say.
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.
Some day I shall be President.
My father... removed from Kentucky to... Indiana, in my eighth year... It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up... Of course when I came of age, I did not know much. Still somehow, I could read, write, and cipher... but that was all.
I never went to school more than six months in my life, but I can say this: that among my earliest recollections, I remember how, when a mere child, I used to get irritated when anybody talked to me in a way I could not understand.
It is with your aid, as the people, that I think we shall be able to preserve - not the country, for the country will preserve itself, but the institutions of the country - those institutions which have made us free, intelligent and happy - the most free, the most intelligent, and the happiest people on the globe.
Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States - old as well as new - North as well as South.
There may sometimes be ungenerous attempts to keep a young man down; and they will succeed, too, if he allows his mind to be diverted from its true channel to brood over the attempted injury.
It is a great piece of folly to attempt to make anything out of my early life.
I can express all my views on the slavery question by quotations from Henry Clay.
Quotes without a listed source are commonly attributed to Abraham Lincoln. We add sources as we confirm them. How we source quotes
Disputed
Sources disagree about whether these words are genuine.
All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.
Why it is disputedAttributed in The Life of Abraham Lincoln (1866) by Josiah G. Holland, p. 23; also in The Real Life of Abraham Lincoln (1867) by George Alfred Townsend, p. 6; according to Townsend, Lincoln made this remark to his law partner, William Herndon. It is disputed whether this quote refers to Lincoln's natural mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, who died when he was nine years old, or to his stepmother, Sarah Bush (Johnston) Lincoln. · via Wikiquote
I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.
Why it is disputedLikely spurious quote, UNVERIFIED ATTRIBUTE - Quoted in The Lexington Observer & Reporter (16 June 1864) · via Wikiquote
Often misattributed
These are frequently credited to Abraham Lincoln, but the evidence points elsewhere.
You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.
Actual originQuoted in Vernon K. McLellan (2000) Wise Words and Quotes · via Wikiquote
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.
Actual originThe last sentence is from the 16 October 1854 Peoria speech, slightly paraphrased. No known contemporary source for the rest. It first appears, attributed to Lincoln, in US religious/inspirational journals in 1907-8, such as p123, Friends Intelligencer: a religious and family journal, Volume 65, Issue 8 (1908) · via Wikiquote
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.
Actual originMisattributed to Lincoln by several authors since about 2000. Source of quote: General Douglas MacArthur is quoted as saying, "Like 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" (John Gunther, The Riddle of MacArthur, New York: Harper, 1950, p. 61). By the 1970s, the phrase is quoted in several places without the words "Like Abraham Lincoln," and attributed directly to Lincoln. The additional phrase "and beer" first appears in a list of jokes published online in 1999. · via Wikiquote
Marriage is neither heaven nor hell, it is simply purgatory.
Actual originAttributed in Henry Louis Mencken (1942), A New Dictionary of Quotations · via Wikiquote
The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly.
Actual originAttributed in A Dictionary of Thoughts (1908) by Tryon Edwards; this is earlier attributed to Theodore Roosevelt in Life of William McKinley (1901) by Samuel Fallows, and could be derived from the remarks of Ulysses S. Grant in his First Inaugural Address (4 March 1869): "I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution". · via Wikiquote
If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.
Actual originAttributed in Evan Esar (1949), The Dictionary of Humorous Quotations · via Wikiquote
You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.
Actual originQuoted in Herbert V. Prochnow (1955), Speaker's Book of Epigrams and Witticisms · via Wikiquote
I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.
Actual originAttributed to Lincoln in Mark Gold (1998), Animal century . Also attributed to Rowland Hill in Henry Woodcock (1879), Wonders of Grace · via Wikiquote