Abraham Lincoln Quotes (426 Quotes)


    Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.

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

    The power confided in me will be used to hold, occupy and possess the property and places belonging to the government, and to collect the duties and imposts.

    Gentlemen, suppose all the property you were worth was in gold, and you had put it in the hands of Blondin to carry across the Niagara River on a rope, would you shake the cable, or keep shouting out to him - 'Blondin, stand up a little straighter - Blondin, stoop a little more - go a little faster - lean a little more to the north - lean a little more to the south' No, you would hold your breath as well as your tongue, and keep your hands off until he was safe over. The Government are carrying an immense weight. Untold treasures are in their hands. They are doing the very best they can. Don't badger them. Keep silence, and we'll get you safe across. -Francis B. Carpenter, 'Anecdotes and Reminiscences of President Lincoln' in Henry Jarvis Raymond, The Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln..., p. 752 (1865). Carpenter, a portrait artist, lived in the White House for six months beginning February 1864, to paint the president and the entire Cabinet. His relations with the president became of an 'intimate character,' and he was permitted 'the freedom of his private office at almost all hours,...privileged to see and know more of his daily life' than most people. He states that he 'endeavored to embrace only those anecdotes which bear the marks of authenticity. Many.... I myself heard the President relate others were communicated to me by persons who either heard or took part in them' (p. 725). Blondin (real name Jean Francois Gravelet) was a French tightrope walker who crossed Niagara Falls on a tightrope in 1855, 1859, and 1860

    I agree with you, Mr. Chairman, that the working men are the basis of all governments, for the plain reason that they are the more numerous, and as you added that those were the sentiments of the gentlemen present, representing not only the working class, but citizens of other callings than those of the mechanic, I am happy to concur with you in these sentiments, not only of the native born citizens, but also of the Germans and foreigners from other countries.


    Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored.

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

    The people when rightly and fully trusted will return the trust

    Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose - and you allow him to make war at pleasure.

    When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion.

    I could as easily bail out the Potomac River with a teaspoon as attend to all the details of the army. Attributed to President Abraham Lincoln by General James B. Fry. Allen Thorndike Rice, Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln, chapter 22, p. 393 (1886). This supposedly had been part of Lincoln's response to a young volunteer soldier who had come to Lincoln's office asking his help with a grievance. The story has been repeated in numerous books on Lincoln Alexander K. McClure, 'Abe' Lincoln's Yarns and Stories, p. 162 (1904) Ida M. Tarbell, The Life of Abraham Lincoln, vol. 2, p. 153 (1917) and Caroline T. Harnsberger, The Lincoln Treasury, p. 14 (1950).


    The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly.

    When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees.

    It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words And this, too, shall pass away. How much it expresses How chastening in the hour of pride how consoling in the depth of affliction Many versions of this story exist. Another one is 'The Sultan asked for a Signet motto, that should hold good for Adversity or Prosperity. Solomon gave him, 'This also shall pass away.' Edward Fitzgerald, Polonius A Collection of Wise Saws and Modern Instances, item 112, p. 80 (1901). The words In neez bogzarad, which can be translated, 'This also shall pass,' appear in the Diven of the twelfth century Persian poet and philosopher, Sana'I of Ghaznl, ed. Mazahir Musaffa, p. 92 (1957).

    When you have got an elephant by the hind legs and he is trying to run away, it's best to let him run.

    Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived.

    To stand in silence when they should be protesting makes cowards of 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 you will, is the great high-road to his reason. . .

    There are few things wholly evil or wholly good. Almost everything, especially of government policy, is an inseparable compound of the two, so that our best judgment of the preponderance between them is continually demanded.

    Tell us any lie you want to, In any kind of mixture, But we pray you, God we pray you, Don't show us his picture.

    I then thought him one of the most diffident and worst plagued men I ever saw.

    An old Dutch farmer, who remarked to a companion once that it was not best to swap horses in mid-stream.

    How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.

    A drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.



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    Theodore Roosevelt - George Washington - Franklin D. Roosevelt - Abraham Lincoln - William J. Clinton - Jimmy Carter - James Monroe - George H. W. Bush - Dwight D. Eisenhower - Calvin Coolidge


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