Lincoln Abraham Quotes & Sayings

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. — Abraham Lincoln

But let the past as nothing be. For the future my view is that the fight must go on. — Abraham Lincoln

I can only say that I have acted upon my best convictions, without selfishness or malice, and that by the help of God I shall continue to do so. — Abraham Lincoln

[T]he man who, in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national independence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast, and capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document, an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times, and so to embalm it there, that to-day, and in all coming days, it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the very harbingers of reappearing tyranny and oppression. — Abraham Lincoln

I therefore shared fully the intense chagrin of the New York and other State delegations when, on the third ballot, Abraham Lincoln received a larger vote than Seward. — Henry Villard

The people themselves, and not their servants, can safely reverse their own deliberate decisions. — Abraham Lincoln

The loss of enemies does not compensate for the loss of friends. — Abraham Lincoln

I am not an accomplished lawyer. — Abraham Lincoln

There is no greater injustice than to wring your profits from the sweat of another man's brow. — Abraham Lincoln

There are but two types of men who desire war: those who haven't the slightest intention of fighting it themselves, and those who haven't the slightest idea what it is. ... Any man who has seen the face of death knows better than to seek him out a second time. — Seth Grahame-Smith

The working men are the basis of all governments, for the plain reason that they are the most numerous ... — Abraham Lincoln

Teach hope to all, despair to none. — Abraham Lincoln

About the Story

Not all the details in this story are true. The times some events occurred have been changed, and the conversations are made up. Most of the things Tad Lincoln did in this story reportedly happened, including saving Jack the turkey and bombarding the Cabinet Room door with his toy cannon. Tad really was determined to raise money to help wounded soldiers and did persuade his father to pardon a woman's husband so he wouldn't be shot. Although Tad's antics often annoyed his father's staff, most agreed he had a big heart and a special way with animals. Once he even hitched goats to a chair and ran them through the White House, upsetting a gathering of dignified ladies. Nothing was too surprising when it came to Tad.
Although several presidents had declared occasional days of thanksgiving, none had ever officially made it a national holiday. Abraham Lincoln finally did so with his Proclamation of Thanksgiving on October 3, 1863. — Gary Hines

To the new president, Abraham Lincoln: Sir, if on attaining the presidency you are as happy as I am upon leaving it, then, sir, you are a happy man indeed. — James Buchanan

Government, possessing the power to create and issue currency and credit as money and enjoying the right to withdraw both currency and credit from circulation by taxation and otherwise, need not and should not borrow capital at interest as a means of financing government work and public enterprises. — Abraham Lincoln

DARWIN'S "SACRED CAUSE"?
Much ink has been dedicated to determining Charles Darwin's role in "scientific racism." The only way to empirically and scientifically determine his role is to organize the events as a timeline, and thus placing them into context of historical events. Political analysis without historical context is all sail and no rudder. In America we are constantly made aware that both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on the same day, in the same year, February 12, 1809. Adrian Desmond and James Moore famous 2009 book, "Darwin's Sacred Cause," leverages this factoid in an effort to place Charles Darwin at par with Abraham Lincoln in the abolition of slavery. This fraudulently steals away credit from Abraham Lincoln, who took a bullet to the head for the cause, and transfers it by inference to an aristocrat whom remained in his plush abode throughout the conflict and never lifted a finger for the cause. — A.E. Samaan

The life of Abraham Lincoln is by most accounts an amazing study in character formation. Yet he was notoriously disorganized; he even had a file in his law office labeled If you can't find it anywhere else, try looking here. — John Ortberg

Killing the dog does not cure the bite. — Abraham Lincoln

Don't kneel to me, that is not right. You must kneel to God only, and thank Him for the liberty you will hereafter enjoy. — Abraham Lincoln

Reputation is like fine china: Once broken it's very hard to repair. — Abraham Lincoln

The facts with which I shall deal this evening are mainly old and familiar; nor is there anything new in the general use I shall make of them. If there shall be any novelty, it will be in the mode of presenting the facts, and the inferences and observations following that presentation.
(Cooper Union address, 1860) — Abraham Lincoln

I can not but hate the prospect of slavery's expansion. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world-enables the enemies of free institutions, with plausibility, to taunt us as hypocrites-causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity. — Abraham Lincoln

Determine that the thing can and shall be done and then ... find the way. — Abraham Lincoln

Never change horses in midstream. — Abraham Lincoln

The books, and your capacity for understanding them, are just the same in all places ... Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed, is more important than any other one thing. — Abraham Lincoln

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

I would like to speak in terms of praise due to the many brave officers and soldiers who have fought in the cause of the war. — Abraham Lincoln

Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser - in fees, expenses, and waste of time. As a peacemaker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough. — Abraham Lincoln

Let us discard all this quibbling about this man and the other man-this race and that race and the other race being inferior, and therefore they must be placed in and inferior position ... Let us discard all these things, and unite as one people throughout this land, until we shall once more stand up declaring that all men are created equal. — Abraham Lincoln

We better know there is a fire whence we see much smoke rising than we could know it by one or two witnesses swearing to it. The witnesses may commit perjury, but the smoke cannot. — Abraham Lincoln

"Angelophany" is the visible or otherwise tangible manifestation of angels to human beings. Abraham Lincoln frequently mentioned that he was visited by angels at the White House ... — James R. Lewis

In your temporary failure there is no evidence that you may not yet be a better scholar, and a more successful man in the great struggle of life, than many others, who have entered college more easily. — Abraham Lincoln

There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law. — Abraham Lincoln

The Almighty has His own purposes. — Abraham Lincoln

Human-nature will not change. — Abraham Lincoln

Public opinion in this country is everything. — Abraham Lincoln

So basically
be careful never to be too awesome
or you will be mysteriously executed
just like Martin Luther King
and Gandhi
and Abraham Lincoln
and JFK
and Malcolm X
and Sitting Bull
and Crazy Horse
and... wow
why are we so mean to our best people? — Cory O'Brien

I do not think I could myself be brought to support a man for office whom I knew to be an open enemy of, and scoffer at, religion. — Abraham Lincoln

If you attend a meeting of evolutionary biologists somewhere in America, you might be lucky and spot a tall, gray-whiskered, smiling man bearing a striking resemblance to Abraham Lincoln, standing rather diffidently at the back of the crowd. He will probably be surrounded by a knot of admirers, hanging on his every word - for he is a man of few words. A whisper will go around the room: "George is here." You will sense from people's reactions the presence of greatness. — Matt Ridley

I found out that many subjects were taboo from the white man's point of view. Among the topics they did not like to discuss with Negros were the following: American white women; the Ku Klux Klan; France, and how Negro soldiers fared while there; French women; Jack Johnson; the entire northern part of the United States; the Civil War; Abraham Lincoln; U.S. Grant; General Sherman; Catholics; the Pope; Jews; the Republican Party; slavery; social equality; Communism; Socialism; the 13th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution; or any topic calling for positive knowledge or manly self-assertion on the Part of the Negro. The most accepted topics were sex and religion. — Richard Wright

Cortissoz was art critic of the New York Herald Tribune. — Abraham Lincoln

If any personal description of me is thought desirable, it may be said, I am, in height, six feet, four inches, nearly; lean in flesh, weighing on an average one hundred and eighty pounds; dark complexion, with coarse black hair, and grey eyes
no other marks or brands recollected. — Abraham Lincoln

The problem is that we tend too often to read Lincoln's growth backward, as an unproblematic trajectory toward a predetermined end. This enables scholars to ignore or downplay aspects of Lincoln's beliefs with which they are uncomfortable. — Eric Foner

Wise statesmen ... established these great self-evident truths, that when in the distant future some man, some faction, some interest, should set up the doctrine that none but rich men, or none but white men, were entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, their posterity should look up again at the Declaration of Independence and take courage to renew the battle which their fathers began ... — Abraham Lincoln

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

All that harms labor is treason to America. — Abraham Lincoln

You cannot help small men by tearing down big men. — Abraham Lincoln

I'm fonder of you than anybody on earth. I couldn't tell you that in New York. It'd mean I was a faggot. That was what the Civil War was about. Abraham Lincoln was a faggot. He was in love with General Grant. So was Jefferson Davis. Lincoln just freed the slaves on a bet. — Ernest Hemingway,

You say men ought to be hung for the way they are executing the law; I say the way it is being executed is quite as good as any of its antecedents. It is being executed in the precise way which was intended from the first, else why does no Nebraska man express astonishment or condemnation? Poor Reeder is the only public man who has been silly enough to believe that anything like fairness was ever intended, and he has been bravely undeceived. — Abraham Lincoln

Think of strangers as friends you not met yet. — Abraham Lincoln

No man ever got lost on a straight road. — Abraham Lincoln

I received orders from Congress to proceed to Charleston in South Carolina, for the purpose of Co'operating with General Lincoln in the defense of that Capitol. — Abraham Whipple

We all remember Abraham Lincoln as the leader who saved our Union. Founder of the Republican Party. — Barack Obama

I think, with the gay liberation movement has had need for heroes and heroines, and it would be rather nice to have Abraham Lincoln as your poster boy, wouldn't it? — David Herbert Donald

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

Oh, yes; you Virginians shed barrels of perspiration while standing off at a distance and superintending the work your slaves do for you. It is different with us. Here it is every fellow for himself, or he doesn't get there. — Abraham Lincoln

I am nothing, truth is everything. — 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 courts of justice. — Abraham Lincoln

Do I not damage my enemies after i make them my close friends? — Abraham Lincoln

I wish to see, in process of disappearing, that only thing which ever could bring this nation to civil war. — Abraham Lincoln

I will either be America's greatest president or its last. — Abraham Lincoln

You can complain because a rose has thorns, or you can rejoice
Because the thorns have a rose. — Abraham Lincoln

Judge not, that ye be not judged. — Abraham Lincoln

A tendancy to melancholy ... let it be observed, is a misfortune, not a fault. — Abraham Lincoln

Discipline is choosing between what you want now, and what you want most. — Abraham Lincoln

Better to be silent and thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt. — Andre Gide

In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you ... You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect and defend it. — Abraham Lincoln

I was a little cross.I ask pardon. If I do get up a little temper I have no sufficient time to keep it up. — Abraham Lincoln

Through their deeds, the dead of battle have spoken more eloquently for themselves than any of the living ever could. But we can only honor them by rededicating ourselves to the cause for which they gave a last full measure of devotion. — Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln grew immeasurably as he came to think of himself as an instrument of God's will. — Joe L. Wheeler

I cannot imaging anyone looking at the sky and denying God. — Abraham Lincoln

Prosperity is the fruit of labor. It begins with saving money. — Abraham Lincoln

I have always been an old-line Henry Clay Whig. — Abraham Lincoln

My earlier views of the unsoundness of the Christian scheme of salvation and the human origin of the scriptures have become clearer and stronger with advancing years, and I see no reason for thinking I shall ever change them. — Abraham Lincoln

You can't help the poor by being one of them. — Abraham Lincoln

The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend. — Abraham Lincoln

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. — Abraham Lincoln

The fact that an African American sits in the White House at the helm of government in the United States of America on this 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation represents both phenomenal political symbolism and a victory of faith in democracy that should not be lost on any American. — Aberjhani

The more sects we have the better. They are all getting somebody in (to the Church) that the others could not: and even with the numerous divisions we are all doing tolerably well. — Abraham Lincoln

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. — Abraham Lincoln

Here in my heart, my happiness, my house.
Here inside the lighted window is my love, my hope, my life.
Peace is my companion on the pathway winding to the threshold.
Inside this portal dwells new strength in the security, serenity, and radiance of those I love above life itself.
Here two will build new dreams
dreams that tomorrow will come true.
The world over, these are the thoughts at eventide when footsteps turn ever homeward.
In the haven of the hearthside is rest and peace and comfort. — Abraham Lincoln

{When Abraham Lincoln was 26 years old in 1835, he wrote a defense of Thomas Paine's deism; a political associate, Samuel Hill, burned it to save Lincoln's political career. Historian Roy Basler, the editor of Lincoln's papers, said Paine had a strong influence on Lincoln's style:}

No other writer of the eighteenth century, with the exception of Jefferson, parallels more closely the temper or gist of Lincoln's later thought. In style, Paine above all others affords the variety of eloquence which, chastened and adapted to Lincoln's own mood, is revealed in Lincoln's formal writings. — Roy Basler

You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today. — Abraham Lincoln

There are few things wholly evil or wholly good. Almost everything, especially of government policy, is an inseparable compound of the two, so that our best judgment of the preponderance between them is continually demanded. — Abraham Lincoln

I couldn't be two faced. If I had two faces, I wouldn't wear this one. — Abraham Lincoln

I think that when you look at the great politicians, the two greatest in my view were George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, they certainly had character traits. You also know Abraham Lincoln overcame severe depression problems that he had when he was younger, which gave him the strength and the character later on. — John McCain

He (Abraham Lincoln) said he wanted to visit the Holy Land and see those places hallowed by the footprints of the Saviour. He was saying there was no city he so much desired to see as Jerusalem. And with the words half spoken on his tongue, the bullet of the assassin entered the brain, and the soul of the great and good President was carried by the angels to the New Jerusalem above. — Mary Todd Lincoln

I believe in monstrosities, and 'I Am Abraham' is a monstrosity of sorts, raveling out moment by moment with its contrapuntal songs, as if a band of musicians were at play, all of them with Lincoln's beard and disturbing grey eyes. — Jerome Charyn

What I want is to get done what the people desire to have done, and the question for me is how to find that out exactly. — 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, and beer. — Abraham Lincoln

I am busily engaged in study of the Bible. — Abraham Lincoln

I never trusted a man who never smoked or drank. — Abraham Lincoln

When I was a child I had a crush on Abraham Lincoln. Why I would choose to reveal this, I know not. — Julia Roberts

Among the friends of Union, there is great diversity of sentiment and of policy in regard to slavery and the African race among us. — Abraham Lincoln

I am rather inclined to silence. — Abraham Lincoln

It is a pleasure to be able to quote lines to fit any occasion ... — Abraham Lincoln

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

Who is this Fuck?" says Abraham Lincoln. "Why is he talking to this Fuck? That is not the name of anyone here. — Margaret Atwood

I have seen your dispatch expressing your unwillingness to break your hold where you are. Neither am I willing. Hold on with a bulldog grip, and chew and choke ... — 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 up to what light I have. — Abraham Lincoln