Quotations - Abraham Lincoln
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me.
All I am, or can be, I owe to my angel mother.
All my life I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever the flower would grow in thought and mind.
All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.
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 a purpose - and you allow him to make war at pleasure.
Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.
Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.
Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
And in the end it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.
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.
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.
As our case is new, we must think and act anew.
Avoid popularity if you would have peace.
Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets.
Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new at all.
Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.
Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.
Die when I may, I want it said by those who knew me best that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow. 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. Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties. Don’t worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.
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. Every one desires to live long, but no one would be old. Everybody likes a compliment. For those who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they like. 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. Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe. God must love the common man, he made so many of them. Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth. He bores me. He ought to have stuck to his flying machine. He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas better than any man I ever met. He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help. He who molds the public sentiment… makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to make. Hold on with a bulldog grip, and chew and choke as much as possible. 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 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. 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 can make more generals, but horses cost money. I care not much for a man’s religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it. 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 destroy my enemies when I make them my friends. I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday. I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end. I don’t know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be. I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.
I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.
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. 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 never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day. I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views. I walk slowly, but I never walk backward.