Abraham Lincoln Quotes on Man (55 Quotes)

Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. 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. The Almighty has His own purposes.

The assertion that "all men are created equal" was of no practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain and it was placed in the Declaration not for that, but for future use.

If you wish to win a man over to your ideas, first make him your friend.

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

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

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.

But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.

Remarks at the Monogahela House February 14, 1861 I am rather inclined to silence, and whether that be wise or not, it is at least more unusual nowadays to find a man who can hold his tongue than to find one who cannot.

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

There is an important sense in which government is distinctive from administration. One is perpetual, the other is temporary and changeable. A man may be loyal to his government and yet oppose the particular principles and methods of administration. Attributed to Representative Abraham Lincoln. by W. T. Roche, address at Washington, Kansas, April 9, 1942 'These words were spoken by Lincoln, then a Congressman, in defense of his condemnation of President Polk for provoking the Mexican War.'

We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.

Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors.

When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and true maxim that 'a drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.' So with men. If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches his heart, which, say what he will, is the great highroad to his reason, and which, once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing him of the justice of your cause, if indeed that cause is really a good one.

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

If all men were just, there still would be some, though not so much, need of government.

I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.

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.

I do not think much of a man who does not know more today than he did yesterday.

Politicians are a set of men who have interests aside from the interests of the people and who, to say the most of them, are, taken as a mass, at least one long step removed from honest men

In times like these men should utter nothing for which they would not be willingly responsible through time and in eternity.

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

After a man reaches forty, he is responsible for his face.

I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal.

Address at Sanitary Fair, Baltimore, Maryland, April 18, 1864 We all declare for liberty but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor while with others, the same word many mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names liberty and tyranny.

The President tonight 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.'

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

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.

My friends No one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when or whether ever I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of that Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.

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.

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.

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.

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.

He reminds me of the man who murdered both his parents, and then when the sentence was about to be pronounced, pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was orphan.

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

When the white man governs himself, that is self-government but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self government - that is despotism

Surely God would not have created such a being as man, with an ability to grasp the infinite, to exist only for a day! No, no, man was made for immortality.

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.

I don't like that man. I'm going to have to get to know him better.

The best gift God has given man is the Bible. It is by all odds the most influential book (or rather collection of books) in existence. The Old and New Testaments have held men together spiritually through the centuries. Three hundred and fifty years ago, in 1611, fifty four devoted English scholars and churchmen, assigned to the task by King James I, gave to the English speaking world a monument of noble prose, on which so many of us have been brought up. The Bible has been translated into more than 1,150 languages. In short, the Bible has had the most dramatic career of any book in the world.

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

Republicans are for both the man and the dollar, but in case of conflict the man before the dollar.

I don't like that man. I must get to know him better.

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

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

In regards to this great Book (the Bible), I have but to say it is the bestgift God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world wascommunicated through this Book. But for it we could not know rightfrom wrong. All things most desirable for man's welfare, here andhereafter, are found portrayed in it.

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

God must love the common man, he made so many of them.

In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book.

Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict slavery might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. 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

He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know.