Quotes of Abraham Lincoln

“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.”

“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”

“All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.”

“A friend is one who has the same enemies as you have.”

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

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

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

“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”

“People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.”

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

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

"All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother."

“It is rather for us to be 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 that 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.”

“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, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

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

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

"I regard no man as poor who has a godly mother."

"Every man is proud of what he does well; and no man is proud of what he does  not do well. With the former, his heart is in his work; and he will do twice as much of it with less fatigue. The latter performs a little imperfectly, looks at it in disgust, turns from it, and imagines himself exceedingly tired. The little he has done, comes to nothing, for want of finishing."

"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.' How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!"

"Then came the Black-Hawk war; and I was elected a Captain of Volunteers -- a success which gave me more pleasure than any I have had since."

"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt."

“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”

"Let us at all times remember that all American citizens are brothers of a common country, and should dwell together in bonds of fraternal feeling."

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

"People are just about as happy as they make up their minds to be."

"Public opinion, though often formed upon a wrong basis, yet generally has a strong underlying sense of justice."

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

"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."

"Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle."

"Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it."

"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."

"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."

"We trust, sir, that God is on our side. It is more important to know that we are on God's side."

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

"What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried?"

"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy."

"Avoid popularity if you would have peace."

"I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice."

"It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues."

"He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help."

"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."

"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."

"By the 'mud-sill' theory it is assumed that labor and education are incompatible; and any practical combination of them impossible. According to that theory, a blind horse upon a tread-mill, is a perfect illustration of what a laborer should be all the better for being blind, that he could not tread out of place, or kick understandingly. According to that theory, the education of laborers, is not only useless, but pernicious, and dangerous. In fact, it is, in some sort, deemed a misfortune that laborers should have heads at all."

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

“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.”