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

As our case is new, we must think and act anew.

— Abraham Lincoln

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.

— Abraham Lincoln

I fear explanations explanatory of things explained.

— Abraham Lincoln

Those who write clearly have readers, those who write obscurely have commentators.

— Abraham Lincoln

Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition.

— Abraham Lincoln

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

— Abraham Lincoln

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

— Abraham Lincoln

Every person is responsible for his own looks after 40.

— 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

To correct the evils, great and small, which spring from want of sympathy and from positive enmity among strangers, as nations or as individuals, is one of the highest functions of civilization.

— Abraham Lincoln

These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people.

— Abraham Lincoln

They hold that labor is prior to, and independent of, capital; that, in fact, capital is the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed; that labor can exist without capital, but that capital could never have existed without labor. Hence they hold that labor is the superior – greatly the superior – of capital. They do not deny that there is, and probably always will be, a relation between labor and capital.

— Abraham Lincoln

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 you will, is the great high-road to his reason, and which, when once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing his judgment of the justice of your cause.

— Abraham Lincoln

Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

— Abraham Lincoln

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. I do the very best I know how -- the very best I can. And I mean to keep on doing it to the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me will not amount to anything. If the end brings me out all wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.

— Abraham Lincoln

We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.

— Abraham Lincoln

I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for the day.

— Abraham Lincoln

When you have got an elephant by the hind legs and he is trying to run away, it's best to let him run.

— Abraham Lincoln

Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.

— Abraham Lincoln

He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I ever met.

— Abraham Lincoln

Everybody likes a compliment.

— Abraham Lincoln

If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.

— Abraham Lincoln

It is the eternal struggle between these two principles -- right and wrong. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time and will ever continue to struggle. It is the same spirit that says, You work and toil and earn bread, and I'll eat it.

— Abraham Lincoln

What is conservatism? It is not adherence to the old and tried, but against the new and untried?

— Abraham Lincoln

Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes crimes out of things that are not crimes.

— Abraham Lincoln

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

— Abraham Lincoln

What I do say is that no man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent.

— Abraham Lincoln

He reminds me of the man who murdered both his parents, and then when the sentence was about to be pronounced, pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was orphan.

— Abraham Lincoln

I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong it's reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.

— Abraham Lincoln

If I care to listen to every criticism, let alone act on them, then this shop may as well be closed for all other businesses. I have learned to do my best, and if the end result is good then I do not care for any criticism, but if the end result is not good, then even the praise of ten angels would not make the difference.

— Abraham Lincoln

If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, then ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.

— Abraham Lincoln

I destroy my enemy when I make him my friend.

— Abraham Lincoln

Die when I may, 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

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.

— Abraham Lincoln

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

— 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 no democracy.

— Abraham Lincoln

No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent.

— Abraham Lincoln

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

— Abraham Lincoln

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.

— Abraham Lincoln

I dream of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.

— Abraham Lincoln

The sense of obligation to continue is present in all of us. A duty to strive is the duty of us all. I felt a call to that duty.

— Abraham Lincoln

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.

— Abraham Lincoln

If elected I shall be thankful; if not, it will be all the same.

— Abraham Lincoln

The best way to destroy your enemy is to make him your friend.

— Abraham Lincoln

People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like.

— Abraham Lincoln

When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees.

— Abraham Lincoln

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

— Abraham Lincoln

We know nothing of what will happen in future, but by the analogy of experience.

— Abraham Lincoln

Every man over forty is responsible for his face.

— Abraham Lincoln

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

— Abraham Lincoln

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

— Abraham Lincoln

Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us dare to do our duty as we understand it.

— Abraham Lincoln

All I am, or can be, I owe to my angel mother.

— Abraham Lincoln

A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me.

— Abraham Lincoln

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

— Abraham Lincoln

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

— Abraham Lincoln

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.

— Abraham Lincoln

Freedom is the last, best hope of earth.

— Abraham Lincoln

Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought. 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

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.

— Abraham Lincoln

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

— Abraham Lincoln

Do not destroy that immortal emblem of humanity, the Declaration of Independence.

— Abraham Lincoln

I desire to so 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 of me.

— Abraham Lincoln

I don't like that man. I'm going to have to get to know him better.

— Abraham Lincoln

A drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gal. 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 which catches his heart, which, say what he will, is the highroad to his reason.

— Abraham Lincoln

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

— Abraham Lincoln

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

— Abraham Lincoln

Tell me what brand of whiskey that Grant drinks. I would like to send a barrel of it to my other generals.

— Abraham Lincoln

Towering genius disdains a beaten path.

— Abraham Lincoln

Military glory --the attractive rainbow that rises in showers of blood.

— Abraham Lincoln

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.

— Abraham Lincoln

A Government of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

— Abraham Lincoln

Whatever you are, be a good one.

— Abraham Lincoln

A person will be just about as happy as they make up their minds to be.

— Abraham Lincoln

Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history.

— Abraham Lincoln

The fiery trials through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation.

— Abraham Lincoln

With high hope for the future, no prediction is ventured.

— Abraham Lincoln

I can make a General in five minutes but a good horse is hard to replace.

— Abraham Lincoln

God must love the common man, he made so many of them.

— Abraham Lincoln

If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.

— 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

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

With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die.

— Abraham Lincoln

A jury too often has at least one member more ready to hang the panel than to hang the traitor.

— Abraham Lincoln

Let reverence for the laws be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap. Let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges. Let it be written in primers, spelling books, and in almanacs. Let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in the courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation.

— Abraham Lincoln

With public sentiment is everything, with it nothing can fail, without it nothing can succeed.

— Abraham Lincoln

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.

— Abraham Lincoln

No man has a good enough memory to make a successful liar.

— 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

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

Marriage is neither heaven nor hell, it is simply purgatory.

— Abraham Lincoln

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.

— Abraham Lincoln

Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived.

— Abraham Lincoln

I am not concerned that you have fallen -- I am concerned that you arise.

— Abraham Lincoln

I am a slow walker, but I never walk backwards.

— Abraham Lincoln

You may fool all the people some of the time, you can even fool some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.

— Abraham Lincoln

If you wish to win a man over to your ideas, first make him your friend.

— Abraham Lincoln

We must ask where we are and whither we are tending.

— Abraham Lincoln

Honest statesmanship is the wise employment of individual meanness for the public good.

— Abraham Lincoln