Abraham Lincoln Quotes

Let there be no compromise on the question of extending slavery. If there be, all our labor is lost, and, ere long, must be done again.

If I had my way, this war would never have been commenced. If I had been allowed my way this war would have been ended before this.

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.

The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.

A man is about as happy as he makes up his mind to be.

The leading rule for the lawyer, as for the man of every other calling, is diligence. Leave nothing for to-morrow which can be done to-day.

The demon of intemperance ever seems to have delighted in sucking the blood of genius and of generosity.

I have just read your dispatch about sore-tongued and fatigued horses, Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the Battle of Antietam that fatigues anything?

Violence begins where knowledge ends.

Be excellent and party on dudes.

We shall not fail - if we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate, or mistakes delay it, but, sooner or later, the victory is sure to come.

Let us hopethat by the best cultivation of the physical world, beneath and around us; and the intellectual and moral world within us, we shall secure an individual, social and political prosperity and happiness, whose course shall be onward and upward, and which, while the earth endures, shall not pass away.

God can not be for, and against the same thing at the same time.

The Bible is not my book nor Christianity my profession. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma.

If they do kill me, I shall never die another death.

It is not our frowning battlements...or the strength our gallant and disciplined army? These are not our reliance against a resumption of tyranny in our fair land... Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere.

Washington's is the mightiest name of earth - long since mightiest in the cause of civil liberty; still mightiest in moral reformation. On that name no eulogy is expected. It cannot be. To add brightness to the sun, or glory to the name of Washington, is alike impossible. Let none attempt it. In solemn awe pronounce the name, and in its naked deathless splendor leave it shining on.

The Presidency, even to the most experienced politicians, is no bed of roses; and [Zachary] Taylor like others, found thorns within it. No human being can fill that station and escape censure.

In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man.

I always remember the prayers of my mother as they always forever.

In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.

I was losing interest in politics, when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again. What I have done since then is pretty well known.

It is bad to be poor. I shall go to the wall for bread and meat, if I neglect my business this year as well as last.

Human action can be modified to some extent, but human nature can not be changed

The unpleasant events you are passing from will not have been profitless to you.

All the armies of Europe combined could not by force make a track upon the Blue Ridge, or take a drink from the Ohio. If we are to be destroyed, we must do it ourselves.

I want in all cases to do right.

Always let your subordinates know that the honor will be all theirs if they succeed and the blame will be yours if they fail.

The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.

I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be 'the Union as it was'.

Friends, I agree with you in Providence; but I believe in the Providence of the most men, the largest purse, and the longest cannon.

I have seen your despatch expressing your unwillingness to break your hold where you are. Neither am I willing. Hold on with a bull-dog gripe, and chew & choke, as much as possible.

I am slow to listen to criminations among friends, and never espouse their quarrels on either side. My sincere wish is that both sides will allow bygones to be bygones, and look to the present & future only.

My faith in the proposition that each man should do precisely as he pleases with all which is exclusively his own lies at the foundation of the sense of justice there is in me.

I would like to speak in terms of praise due to the many brave officers and soldiers who have fought in the cause of the war.

We can not have free government without elections; and if the rebellion could force us to forego, or postpone a national election it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us.

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

The Lord spared the fitten and the rest he seen fitten to die.

If you are resolutely determined to make a lawyer of yourself, the thing is more than half done already.

In this sad world of ours sorrow comes to all and it often comes with bitter agony. Perfect relief is not possible except with time. You cannot now believe that you will ever feel better. But this is not true. You are sure to be happy again. Knowing this, truly believing it will make you less miserable now. I have had enough experience to make this statement.

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

Nothing will divert me from my purpose.

I know there is a God, and that He hates injustice and slavery. I see the storm coming, and I know that his hand is in it. If He has a place and work for me - and I think He has - I believe I am ready.

Senator [Stephen] Douglas is of world-wide renown. All the anxious politicians of his party, or who have been of his party for years past, have been looking upon him as certainly, at no distant day, to be the President of the United States. They have seen in his round, jolly, fruitful face, post offices, land offices, marshalships, and cabinet appointments, chargeships and foreign missions, bursting and sprouting out in wonderful exuberance ready to be laid hold of by their greedy hands.

My policy is to have no policy.

War, at the best, is terrible, and this war of ours, in its magnitude and in its duration, is one of the most terrible.

The love of property and consciousness of right and wrong have conflicting places in our organization, which often makes a man's course seem crooked, his conduct a riddle.

I destroy my enemy if I make him my friend.