Abraham Lincoln Quotes

It's bad. It's damned bad.

The surest way to reveal one's character is not through adversity but by giving them power.

When I lay down the reins of this administration, I want to have one friend left. And that friend is myself.

Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought

No policy that does not rest upon some philosophical public opinion can be permanently maintained.

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.

Every blade of grass is a study; and to produce two, where there was but one, is both a profit and a pleasure.

If there is anything that a man can do well, I say let him do it. Give him a chance.

God is the silent partner in ALL great enterprises.

This human struggle and scramble for office, for a way to live without work, will finally test the strength of our institutions.

Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully.

When I go hear a man speak, I like to hear him speak like he's fighting a swarm of bees.

Think of strangers as friends you not met yet.

Gratefully accepting the proffered honor, [to inscribe a new legal work to him] I give the leave, begging only that the inscription may be in modest terms, not representing me as a man of great learning, or a very extraordinary one in any respect.

If it were not for my firm belief in an overruling Providence, it would be difficult for me, in the midst of such complications of affairs, to keep my reason on its seat. But I am confident that the Almighty has His plans, and will work them out; and, whether we see it or not, they will be the best for us.

Whatever spiteful fools may say, Each jealous ranting yelper, No woman ever went astray, Without a man to help her

Certainly there is no contending against the Will of God; but still there is some difficulty in ascertaining, and applying it, to particular cases.

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

The Autocrat of all the Russias will resign his crown, and proclaim his subjects free republicans sooner than will our American masters voluntarily give up their slaves.

Shall we stop this bleeding?

The strongest bond of human sympathy outside the family relation should be one uniting working people of all nations and tongues and kindreds.

While we are grateful to all the brave men and officers for the events of the past few days, we should, above all, be very grateful to Almighty God, who gives us victory.

Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than laws can among friends? Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always; and when, after much loss on both sides, and no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical old questions as to terms of intercourse are again upon you.

If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.

Stand with anybody that stands right, stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong.

There is really no crisis except an artificial one...If the great American people will only keep their temper, on both sides of the line, the trouble will come to an end.

I do not deny the possibility that the people may err in an election; but if they do, the true [cure] is in the next election, and not in the treachery of the person elected.

If there is a worse place than Hell, I am in it.

We seek not to overthrow the constitution, but to overthrow those who would prevert it.

Cortissoz was art critic of the New York Herald Tribune.

If all do not join now to save the good old ship of the Union this voyage nobody will have a chance to pilot her on another voyage.

Our strife pertains to ourselves-to the passing generations of men-and it can without convulsion be hushed forever with the passing of one generation.

We know nothing of what will happen in future, but by the analogy of experience.

The President to-night has a dream: - He was in a party of plain people, and, as it became known who he was, they began to comment on his appearance. One of them said: - "He is a very common-looking man". The President replied: - "The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is the reason he makes so many of them".

Too many piglets not enough tits.

Sending armies to McClellan is like shoveling fleas across a barnyard, not half of them get there.

If any man tells you he loves America, yet hates labor, he is a liar. If any man tells you he trusts America, yet fears labor, he is a fool.

I was born Feb. 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families--second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks.... My father ... removed from Kentucky to ... Indiana, in my eighth year.... It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up.... Of course when I came of age I did not know much. Still somehow, I could read, write, and cipher ... but that was all.

Teach economy. That is one of the first and highest virtues. It begins with saving money.

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

Love is the chain whereby to bind a child to its parents.

Human nature will not change. In any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as good. Let us therefore study the incidents in this as philosophy to learn wisdom from and none of them as wrongs to be avenged.

As long as the Almighty permitted intelligent men, created in his image and likeness, to fight in public and kill each other while the world looks on approvingly, it's not for me to deprive the chickens of the same privilege.

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

I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how a man could look up into the heavens and say there is no God.

We cannot but believe that He who made the world still governs it.

Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this.

The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible that God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party - and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect His purpose.