Abraham Lincoln Quotes (426 Quotes)

I could not have slept tonight if I had left that helpless little creature to perish on the ground. (reply to friends who chided him for delaying them by stopping to return a fledgling to its nest.)

Suspicions which may be unjust need not be stated.

Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

A nation may be said to consist of its territory, its people, and its laws. The territory is the only part which is of certain durability.

The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.

A universal feeling, whether well or ill founded, cannot be safely disregarded.

If you intend to work, there is no better place than right where you are if you do not intend to go to work, you cannot get along anywhere. Squirming and crawling from place to place can do no good.

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.

I am glad to know that there is a system of labor where the laborer can strike if he wants to I wish to God that such a system prevailed all over the world.

Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done today.

I have stepped out upon this platform that I may see you and that you may see me, and in the arrangement I have the best of the bargain.

Avoid popularity if you would have peace.

Wanting to work is so rare a merit that it should be encouraged.

I believe it is an established maxim in morals that he who makes an assertion without knowing whether it is true or false is guilty of falsehood, and the accidental truth of the assertion does not justify or excuse him.

I am for those means which will give the greatest good to the greatest number.

I care not much for a man's religion who's dog or cat are not the better for it.

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

My old father used to have a saying If you make a bad bargain, hug it all the tighter.

In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong.

I have never had a policy. I have simply tried to do what seemed best each day, as each day came.

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

Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.

Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?

If elected I shall be thankful if not, it will be all the same.

If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business.

I think that God means that we shall do more than we have yet done in furtherance of his plans and he will open the way for our doing it.

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

I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.

If I am killed, I can die but once but to live in constant dread of it, is to die over and over again

The United States government must not undertake to run the Churches. When an individual, in the Church or out of it, becomes dangerous to the public interest he must be checked.

A house divided against itself cannot stand.

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

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.

What is conservatism It is not adherence to the old and tried, but against the new and untried

There is another old poet whose name I do not now remember who said, "Truth is the daughter of Time."

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.

There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law.

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

Having chosen our course, without guile and with pure purpose, let us renew our trust in God, and go forward without fear and with manly hearts.

Kindness is the only service that will stand the storm of life and not wash out. It will wear well and will be remembered long after the prism of politeness or the complexion of courtesy has faded away.

A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half-slave and half-free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved I do not expect the house to fall but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.

As a general rule, I abstain from reading reports of attacks upon myself, wishing not to be provoked by that to which I cannot properly offer an answer.

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.

To ease another's heartache is to forget one's own.

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.

Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

Property is the fruit of labor property is desirable it is a positive good in the world.

Many free countries have lost their liberty, and ours may lose hers but if she shall, be it my proudest plume, not that I was the last to desert, but that I never deserted her

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.