Famous Abraham Lincoln Quotations

First 1 Last 
"I will prepare and some day my chance will come."
by 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."
by Abraham Lincoln
"No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens."
by Abraham Lincoln
"If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee."
by Abraham Lincoln
"I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice."
by Abraham Lincoln
"The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly."
by Abraham Lincoln
"The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time."
by Abraham Lincoln
"The ballot is stronger than the bullet."
by Abraham Lincoln
"Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle."
by Abraham Lincoln
"Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them."
by Abraham Lincoln
"Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing."
by 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."
by Abraham Lincoln
"A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me."
by 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."
by Abraham Lincoln
"The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself in every way he can, never suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him."
by Abraham Lincoln
"Whatever you are, be a good one."
by 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."
by 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."
by Abraham Lincoln
"Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally."
by Abraham Lincoln
"As our case is new, we must think and act anew."
by Abraham Lincoln
"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."
by 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."
by Abraham Lincoln
"I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life."
by Abraham Lincoln
"I'm amazed that you could have the greatest portrait in the United States, of George Washington; you could have the Declaration of Independence desk, the desk on which it was written; you could have the hat that Abraham Lincoln had on the day he died, in buildings that really not only possibly endanger them, but the American people coming to look at them."
by Lawrence Small
"I'm a slow walker, but I never walk back."
by Abraham Lincoln
"No matter how much the cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens."
by Abraham Lincoln
"People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be."
by Abraham Lincoln
"Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time."
by Abraham Lincoln
"Marriage is neither heaven nor hell, it is simply purgatory."
by Abraham Lincoln
"It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues."
by Abraham Lincoln
"Lets have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."
by 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."
by Abraham Lincoln
"I walk slowly, but I never walk backward."
by Abraham Lincoln
"I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it."
by Abraham Lincoln
"I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday."
by Abraham Lincoln
"God must love the common man, he made so many of them."
by Abraham Lincoln
"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."
by Abraham Lincoln
"Don't worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition."
by Abraham Lincoln
"All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother."
by Abraham Lincoln
"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt."
by Abraham Lincoln
"I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me seemed insufficient for the day."
by Abraham Lincoln
"I desire so to 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 me."
by Abraham Lincoln
"If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men we must live through all time, or die by suicide."
by Abraham Lincoln
"If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem."
by Abraham Lincoln
"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."
by Abraham Lincoln
"My father taught me to work he did not teach me to love it."
by Abraham Lincoln
"I don't like that man. I must get to know him better."
by Abraham Lincoln
"Every one desires to live long, but no one would be old."
by Abraham Lincoln
"...Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth."
by Abraham Lincoln
"...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."
by Abraham Lincoln
"'Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt."
by Abraham Lincoln
"A friend is someone who has the same enemies you have."
by Abraham Lincoln
"A friend is one who has the same enemies as you have."
by Abraham Lincoln
"A house divided against itself cannot stand; I believe this government cannot endure permanently half-slave and half-free."
by Abraham Lincoln June 17 1858
"A house divided against itself cannot stand."
by Abraham Lincoln
"A man may be loyal to his government and yet oppose the particular principles and methods of administration"
by Abraham Lincoln
"All I am, or can be, I owe to my angel mother."
by Abraham Lincoln
"All my life I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever the flower would grow in thought and mind."
by Abraham Lincoln
"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing."
by Abraham Lincoln
"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."
by Abraham Lincoln
"Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them"
by Abraham Lincoln
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
by Abraham Lincoln
"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years"
by Abraham Lincoln
"And in the end it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."
by Abraham Lincoln
"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."
by 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"
by Abraham Lincoln
"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy."
by Abraham Lincoln
"Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets."
by Abraham Lincoln
"Avoid popularity if you would have peace."
by Abraham Lincoln
"Based on what you know about him in history books, what do you think Abraham Lincoln would be doing if he were alive today? (1) Writing his memoirs of the Civil War. (2) Advising the President. (3) Desperately clawing at the inside of his coffin."
by David Letterman
"Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm."
by Abraham Lincoln
"Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new at all."
by Abraham Lincoln
"Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new at all"
by 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."
by 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."
by Abraham Lincoln
"Corporations have been enthroned .... An era of corruption in high places will follow and the money power will endeavor to prolong its reign by working on the prejudices of the people... until wealth is aggregated in a few hands ... and the Republic is destroyed."
by Abraham Lincoln
"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."
by Abraham Lincoln
"Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?"
by Abraham Lincoln
"Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties."
by Abraham Lincoln
"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."
by Abraham Lincoln
"Everybody likes a compliment."
by Abraham Lincoln
"Find out what whiskey he drinks and send all of my generals a case, if it will get the same results. - in reply to comments about General Grant's drinking problems"
by Abraham Lincoln
"Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived."
by 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."
by Abraham Lincoln
"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe."
by Abraham Lincoln
"God must have loved the plain people; He made so many of them."
by Abraham Lincoln
"Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth."
by Abraham Lincoln
"He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help."
by Abraham Lincoln
"He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met."
by Abraham Lincoln
"He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know."
by Abraham Lincoln
"He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help."
by Abraham Lincoln
"He who molds the public sentiment... makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to make."
by Abraham Lincoln
"Hold on with a bulldog grip, and chew and choke as much as possible."
by 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."
by Abraham Lincoln
"Hypocrite The man who murdered his parents, and then pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan."
by Abraham Lincoln
"I am for those means which will give the greatest good to the greatest number."
by 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."
by 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."
by Abraham Lincoln
"I am not concerned that you have fallen; I am concerned that you arise."
by 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 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 Abraham Lincoln


Hire a Writer