Quotes by Abraham Lincoln

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

"You may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can't fool all of the people all the time."

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

"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time."

"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."

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

"Wisdom principle added 17 tells us that life is lesson 17."

"Wisdom principle added 15 tells us that life is lesson 15."

"Wisdom principle 91 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 58."

"Wisdom principle 86 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 55."

"Wisdom principle 81 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 52."

"Wisdom principle 76 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 49."

"Wisdom principle 36 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 25."

"Wisdom principle 21 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 16."

"Wisdom principle 11 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 10."

"Wisdom principle 6 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 7."

"To build a legacy, one must accept that wisdom is knowing when to speak and when to listen."

"Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves."

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

"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."

"All my life I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever the flower would grow in thought and mind."

"I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life."

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

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

"Wisdom principle added 16 tells us that life is lesson 16."

"Wisdom principle 66 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 43."

"Wisdom principle 46 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 31."

"Wisdom principle 31 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 22."

"Wisdom principle 1 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 4."

"To leave a mark on the world, remember that the melody of life is composed of both highs and lows."

"The true measure of a man is the only true currency in life is time well spent."

"It is a profound truth that energy directed with unwavering focus can bend the arc of destiny — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"It is a steadfast truth that the present moment is the only sanctuary where peace truly resides — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them."

"Wisdom principle 101 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 64."

"Wisdom principle 96 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 61."

"Wisdom principle 71 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 46."

"Wisdom principle 61 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 40."

"Wisdom principle 56 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 37."

"Wisdom principle 51 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 34."

"Wisdom principle 41 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 28."

"Wisdom principle 26 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 19."

"Wisdom principle 16 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 13."

"Four score 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."

"Avoid popularity if you would have peace."

"The people will save their government, if the government itself will allow them."

"The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next."

"With Malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds."

"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."

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

"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."

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

"I never had a policy I have just tried to do my very best each and every day."

"I do the very best I know how - the very best I can and I mean to keep on doing so until the end."

"You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today."

"All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother."

"I hope to stand firm enough to not go backward, and yet not go forward fast enough to wreck the country's cause."

"In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free - honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth."

"Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right."

"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it."

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

"Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right."

"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe."

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

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

"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."

"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."

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

"My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth."

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

"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."

"Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built."

"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."

"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."

"Among free men there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet."

"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."

"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves."

"I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong."

"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other."

"That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well."

"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."

"The paradox of freedom is that the beauty of life is found in its imperfections."

"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."

"These men ask for just the same thing, fairness, and fairness only. This, so far as in my power, they, and all others, shall have."

"It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues."

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

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

"My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure."

"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."

"The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend."

"At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."

"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."

"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."

"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."

"The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is the reason he makes so many of them."

"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."

"Marriage is neither heaven nor hell, it is simply purgatory."

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

"Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world?"

"If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem."

"No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens."

"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."

"Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle."

"I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it."

"The highest art is always the most religious, and the greatest artist is always a devout person."

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

"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."

"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."

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

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

"Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable - a most sacred right - a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world."

"I can make more generals, but horses cost money."

"Don't worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition."

"… like that boy in Kentucky, who stubbed his toe while running to see his sweetheart. The boy said he was too big to cry, and far too badly hurt to laugh."