Quotes and Quotations

Memorable Quotes and quotations from Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln 16th president of US (1809 - 1865)


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

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

Abraham Lincoln - A House Divided
- I do not believe the Union will disolve, I believe it will become all one thing, or all the other.

Abraham Lincoln -
- The worst thing you can do for those you love is the things they could and should do themselves.

Abraham Lincoln -
- We are not enemies but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic cords of memory shall swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of nature.

Abraham Lincoln - Second Inaugural Address, Mar. 4, 1865
- With malice toward none, with charity for all, ...let us strive on to finish the work we are in, ...to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

Abraham Lincoln -
- Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.

Abraham Lincoln -
- My father taught me to work; he did not teach me to love it.

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 - in a letter to J. M. Cutts, October 26, 1863
- Quarrel not at all. No man resolved to make the most of himself can spare time for personal contention.

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

Abraham Lincoln -
- Whatever you are, be a good one.

Abraham Lincoln -
- I will study and get ready, and perhaps my chance will come.

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

Abraham Lincoln -
- It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.

Abraham Lincoln -
- To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.

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

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

Abraham Lincoln -
- What is conservativism? Is it not the aherence to the old and tried against the new and untried?

Abraham Lincoln - speech in Washington D.C., 1865
- I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.

Abraham Lincoln - (attributed)
- You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.

Abraham Lincoln -
- No man resolved to make the most of himself has time to waste on personal contention.

Abraham Lincoln -
- Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?

Abraham Lincoln -
- The provision of the Constitution giving the war-making power to Congress was dictated, as I understand it, by the following reasons. Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. This, our Convention understood to be the most oppressive of all Kingly oppressions; and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us.

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

Abraham Lincoln -
- The ballot is stronger than the bullet.

Abraham Lincoln -
- Let me not be understood as saying that there are no bad laws, nor that grievances may not arise for the redress of which no legal provisions have been made. I mean to say no such thing. But I do mean to say that although bad laws, if they exist, should be repealed as soon as possible, still, while they continue in force, for the sake of example they should be religiously observed.

Abraham Lincoln -
- Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.

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

Abraham Lincoln -
- When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. And that is my religion.

Abraham Lincoln -
- 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.

Abraham Lincoln -
- He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help.

Abraham Lincoln -
- I will prepare and some day my chance will come.

Abraham Lincoln -
- People are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.

Abraham Lincoln - in a book review
- People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like.

Abraham Lincoln -
- If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend.

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 -
- You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.

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

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

Abraham Lincoln -
- He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met.

Abraham Lincoln -
- If I only had an hour to chop down a tree, I would spend the first 45 minutes sharpening my axe.

Abraham Lincoln -
- It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.

Abraham Lincoln -
- It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.

Abraham Lincoln -
- Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.

Abraham Lincoln -
- It often requires more courage to dare to do right than to fear to do wrong.

Abraham Lincoln -
- I am for those means which will give the greatest good to the greatest number.

Abraham Lincoln -
- In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all... Perfect relief is not possible, except with time. You cannot now realize that you will ever feel better... And yet this is a mistake. You are sure to be happy again.

Abraham Lincoln -
- It is difficult to make a man miserable while he feels worthy of himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him.

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

Abraham Lincoln -
- Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.

Abraham Lincoln -
- Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.

Abraham Lincoln -
- If you look for the bad in people, you will surely find it.

Abraham Lincoln -
- Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.

Abraham Lincoln - On Marriage
- No matter how much cats fight there always seem to be plenty of Kittens.

Abraham Lincoln - (attributed)
- When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion.

Abraham Lincoln -
- I am not concerned that you have fallen; I am concerned that you arise.

Abraham Lincoln -
- Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes his aid against the other.... The prayers of both could not be answered--that of neither has been answered fully.

Abraham Lincoln -
- Those who would deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, cannot long retain it.

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.

Abraham Lincoln -
- That some should be rich, shows that others may become rich, and, hence, is just encouragement to industry and enterprise.

Abraham Lincoln -
- Whatever you are, be a good one.

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

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

Abraham Lincoln -
- Neither Heaven nor Hell. It is simply Purgatory.

Abraham Lincoln -
- Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.

Abraham Lincoln - Gettysburg Address
- ...and that this country shall have a new birth of freedom, and that this government, of the people, for the people, by the people, shall not perish from the Earth.

Abraham Lincoln -
- The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is why he makes so many of them.

Abraham Lincoln - letter to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, July 18, 1864
- Truth is generally the best vindication against slander.

Abraham Lincoln -
- You may deceive all the people part of the time, and part of the people all the time, but not all the people all the time.

Abraham Lincoln -
- 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.

Abraham Lincoln -
- 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.

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

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

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