Abraham Lincoln Quotes

Have I not destroyed my enemy when I have made him into my friend?

This is a world of compensations; and he who would be no slave, must consent to have no slave.

And upon this act [Emancipation Proclamation]...I invoke...the gracious favor of Almighty God.

I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me.

I hold that while a man exists, it is his duty to improve not only his own condition, but to assist in ameliorating mankind.

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

Glory to God in the highest, Ohio has saved the Nation.

The Government should create, issue, and circulate all the currency and credits needed to satisfy the spending power of the Government and the buying power of consumers. By the adoption of these principles, the taxpayers will be saved immense sums of interest. Money will cease to be master and become the servant of humanity.

Don't judge a man by the size of his ego or his heart, but on the epicness of his beard and the beautiful woman on his arm

I am always for the man who wishes to work.

No man is poor who has a Godly mother.

Everybody appreciates a compliment.

That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred ans sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any state or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thence forward, and forever free.

My wife is as handsome as when she was a girl, and I...fell in love with her; and what is more, I have never fallen out.

Let us re-adopt the Declaration of Independence, and with it, the practices, and policy, which harmonize with it. Let north and south - let all Americans - let all lovers of liberty everywhere - join in the great and good work. If we do this, we shall not only have saved the Union; but we shall have so saved it, as to make, and to keep it, forever worthy of the saving. We shall have so saved it, that the succeeding millions of free happy people, the world over, shall rise up, and call us blessed, to the latest generations.

Never stir up litigation, a worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this, who can be more nearly a fiend than he who habitually overhauls the register of deeds in search of defects in titles, whereon to stir up strife, and put money in his pocket?

You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.

It is the man who does not want to express an opinion whose opinion I want.

Prosperity is the fruit of labor. It begins with saving money.

So plain that no one, high or low, ever does mistake it, except in a plainly selfish way; for although volume upon volume is written to prove slavery a very good thing, we never hear of the man who wishes to take the good of it, by being a slave himself.

Every man has a right to be equal with every other man.

The person who is incapable of making a mistake, is incapable of anything.

I have had so many evidences of [God's] direction, so many instances when I have been controlled by some other power than my own will, that I cannot doubt that this power comes from above.

I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true.

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.

Work, work, work, is the main thing.

Whatever woman may cast her lot with mine, should any ever do so, it is my intention to do all in my power to make her happy and contented; and there is nothing I can imagine that would make me more unhappy than to fail in the effort.

No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.

The president is the cube of ice one places in the pot of a houseplant, providing a steady amount of nourishment over the course of a hot day. A good description of the job and also a fantastic bit of practical household advice.

To say a sheep has 5 legs doesn't make it so.

Some day I shall be President.

There is no America without labor, and to fleece the one is to rob the other.

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.

I have neither time nor disposition to enter into discussion with the Friend, and end this occasion by suggesting for her consideration the question whether, if it be true that the Lord has appointed me to do the work she has indicated, it is not probable that he would have communicated knowledge of the fact to me as well as to her.

When I left Springfield [to become President] I asked the people to pray for me. I was not a Christian. When I buried my son, the severest trial of my life, I was not a Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg and saw the graves of thousands of our soldiers, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ.

And then, there will be some black men who can remember that, with silent tongue, and clenched teeth, and steady eye, and well-poised bayonnet, they have helped mankind on to this great consummation.

It is better then, to save the work while it is begun. You have done the labor; maintain it - keep it. If men choose to serve you, go with them; but as you have made up your organization upon principle, stand by it; for as surely as God reigns over you, and has inspired your mind, and given you a sense of propriety, and continues to give you hope, so surely will you still cling to these ideas, and you will at last come back after your wanderings, merely to do your work over again.

[Uniting workers should not] lead to a war upon property, or the owners of property.

Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.

I am in favor of a national bank...in favor of the internal improvements system and a high protective tariff.

It is not merely for to-day, but for all time to come that we should perpetuate for our children's children this great and free government, which we have enjoyed all our lives.

I would rather be assassinated than see a single star removed from the American flag.

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.

It is rather for us 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.

Fondly do we hope, ferverently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away.

Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by every American mother, to the lisping babe, that prattles on her lap - let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in Primmers, spelling books, and in Almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice.

We accepted this war for an object, a worthy object, and the war will end when that object is attained. Under God, I hope it never will until that time.

No man is good enough to govern another man without the other's consent.