Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?
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.
The best way to predict your future is to create it.
The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is why he made so many of them.
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.
Those who look for the bad in people will surely find it.
Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.
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.
If there is anything that links the human to the divine, it is the courage to stand by a principle when everybody else rejects it.
Republicans are for both the man and the dollar, but in case of conflict the man before the dollar.
No matter how much the cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.
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 up to what light I have.
In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong. God cannot be for, and against the same thing at the same time.
I don’t like to hear cut and dried sermons. No—when I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees.
Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.
I have come to the conclusion never again to think of marrying, and for this reason, I can never be satisfied with anyone who would be blockhead enough to have me.
in times like the present, men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be responsible through time and eternity.
Let no feeling of discouragement preyupon you, and in the end you are sure to succeed.
Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.
Take all that you can of this book upon reason, and the balance on faith, and you will live and die a happier man. (When a skeptic expressed surprise to see him reading a Bible)
I laugh because I must not cry, that is all, that is all.
I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had no where else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day.
It is difficult to make a man miserable while he feels worthy of himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him.
Writing, the art of communicating thoughts to the mind through the eye, is the great invention of the world…enabling us to converse with the dead, the absent, and the unborn, at all distances of time and space.
The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter usfrom the support of a cause we believe to be just.
When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion.
The Bible is not my book nor Christianity my profession. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma.
I’m a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn’t have the heart to let him down.
That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.
Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people can be engaged in.
The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation is the philosophy of government in the next.
My Best Friend is a person who will give me a book I have not read.
Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new after all.
Get books, sit yourself down anywhere, and go to reading them yourself.
You can have anything you want if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose.
The better part of one’s life consists of his friendships.
If frienship is your weakest point then you are the strongest person in the world.
Have I not destroyed my enemy when I have made him into my friend?
Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves
Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and, under a just God cannot retain it.
Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.
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.
Hypocrite: The man who murdered his parents, and then pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan.
When I get ready to talk to people, I spend two thirds of the time thinking what they want to hear and one third thinking about what I want to say.
. . . that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.- President Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg address, November 19, 1863
Be with a leader when he is right, stay with him when he is still right, but, leave him when he is wrong.
It will not do to investigate the subject of religion too closely, as it is apt to lead to infidelity.
If this country is ever demoralized, it will come from trying to live without work.
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.
In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed. Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes, or pronounces judicial decisions.
I am growing old enough not to care much for the MANNER of doing things.
Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.
To believe in the things you can see and touch is no belief at all – but to believe in the unseen is a triumph and a blessing.
What is to be, will be, and no prayers of ours can arrest the decree.[Lincoln’s maxim and philosophy]
I was a little cross.I ask pardon. If I do get up a little temper I have no sufficient time to keep it up.
You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.
I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.
If any man ceases to attack me, I never remember the past against him.
One company can serve some of your needs all of the time, or all of your needs some of the time, but never both.
And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.
The struggle of today, is not altogether for today – it is for a vast future also.
I am not concerned that you have fallen — I am concerned that you arise.
My greatest concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are concerned with your failure.
If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.
But for this book we could not know right from wrong.
I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man. All the good from The Savior of the world is communicated to us through this Book.
I would rather be a little nobody, then to be a evil somebody.
Character is like a tree and reputation its shadow. The shadow is what we think it is and the tree is the real thing.
You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.
The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly.
Determine that the thing can and shall be done and then… find the way.
Passion has helped us; but can do so no more. It will in future be our enemy. Reason, cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason, must furnish all the materials for our future support and defence.
It is not in our forming battlements or bristling seacoasts, or our Army and Navy that makes America great – but rather our reliance in the law of liberty and the religious law God has planted in us.
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
Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their violation by others.
If people see the Capitol going on, it is a sign we intend the Union shall go on
Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.
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, and beer.
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.
What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.
Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet.
He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.
I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.
I do the very best I know how, the very best I can, and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.
I care not for a man’s religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.
While the people retain their virtue, and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government, in the short space of four years.
There has never been but one question in all civilization-how to keep a few men from saying to many men: You work and earn bread and we will eat it.
Congressmen who willfully take action during wartime that damages morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled, or hung
I may be wrong in regard to any or all of them; but holding it a sound maxim, that it is better to be only sometimes right, than at all times wrong, so soon as I discover my opinions to be erroneous, I shall be ready to renounce them.
To ease another’s heartache is to forget one’s own.
In your temporary failure there is no evidence that you may not yet be a better scholar, and a more successful man in the great struggle of life, than many others, who have entered college more easily.
All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.
No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar
Tact: the ability to describe others as they see themselves.
The more sects we have the better. They are all getting somebody in (to the Church) that the others could not: and even with the numerous divisions we are all doing tolerably well.
When you have got an elephant by the hind legs and he is trying to run away it is best to let him run.
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 up to what light I have.
I claim not to have controlled events but confess plainly that events have controlled me.
The fiery trials through which we pass will light us down in honour or dishonour to the latest generation.
The fiery trials through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the last generation.
What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.
If you don’t want to use the army I should like to borrow it for a while. Yours respectfully
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.
I sincerely wish war was a pleasanter and easier business than it is but it does not admit of holidays.
Your own resolution to success is more important than any other one thing.
What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried against the new and untried?
Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves and under a just God cannot long retain it.
… That this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom.
I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be new views.
He has a right to criticize who has a heart to help.
You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.
As I would not be a slave so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.
Democracy is the government of the people by the people for the people.
Let us have faith that right makes might and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it.
Always bear in mind that your own resolution to success is more important than any other one thing.
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.
Let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you and in the end you are sure to succeed.
Were it not for my little jokes I could not bear the burdens of this office.
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.
Let us have faith that right makes might and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it.
I don’t know who my grandfather was I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.
It is my pleasure that my children are free and happy and unrestrained by parental tyranny. Love is the chain whereby to bind a child to its parents.
Force is all-conquering but its victories are short-lived.
I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end … I have lost every other friend on earth I shall at least have one friend left and that friend shall be down inside of me.
“We trust Sir that God is on our side.” “It is more important to know that we are on God’s side.”
We trust sir that God is on our side. It is more important to know that we are on God’s side.
Without the assistance of the Divine Being … I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail.
No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent.
While the people retain their virtue and vigilence no administration by any extreme of wickedness or folly can very seriously injure the government in the short space of four years.
Must a government of necessity be too strong for the liberties of its people or too weak to maintain its own existence?
The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done but cannot do at all or cannot so well do for themselves in their separate and individual capacities.
No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent.
A house divided against itself cannot stand – I believe this government cannot endure permanently half-slave and half-free.
Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
Most folk are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
I claim not to have controlled events but confess plainly that events have controlled me.
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.
I have found that most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
Marriage is neither heaven nor hell it is simply purgatory.
All that I am or hope to be I owe to my angel mother.
Hold on with a bulldog grip and chew and choke as much as possible.
You can have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government while I shall have the most solemn one to “preserve protect and defend” it.
This struggle and scramble for office for a way to live without work will finally test the strength of our institutions.
Public opinion though often formed upon a wrong basis yet generally has a strong underlying sense of justice.
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. We must disenthrall ourselves.
We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth.
God must have loved the plain people: He made so many of them.
You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.
I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for the day.
Honest statesmanship is the wise employment of individual meannesses for the public good.
If they do kill me I shall never die another death.
I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for the day.
When you have got an elephant by the hind leg and he is trying to run away it is best to let him run.
I sincerely wish war was a pleasanter and easier business than it is but it does not admit of holidays.
Let us have faith that Right makes Might and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it.
The fiery trials through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the last generation.
That some should be rich shows that others may become rich and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise.
Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.
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.
Always bear in mind that your own resolution to success is more important than any other one thing.
With the catching ends the pleasures of the chase.
With high hope for the future no prediction is ventured.
The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.
The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present.
Seriously I do not think I am fit for the presidency.
I feel like the man who was tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail. To the man who asked how he liked it he said: ‘If it wasn’t for the honour of the thing I’d rather walk.’
I desire to so conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end … I have lost every friend on earth I shall have one friend left and that friend shall be down inside me.
A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me.
The fiery trials through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the last generation.
Lincoln on Grant: “He makes things get. Wherever he is, he makes things move.
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.
Extemporaneous speaking should be practiced and cultivated. It is the lawyer’s avenue to the public. However able and faithful he may be in other respects, people are slow to bring him business if he cannot make a speech.
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.
If there is anything that a man can do well, I say let him do it. Give him a chance.
All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.
My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.
I hope to stand firm enough to not go backward, and yet not go forward fast enough to wreck the country’s cause.
I have great respect for the semicolon it is a mighty handy little fellow.
If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.
My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.
Important principles may, and must, be inflexible.
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.
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.
I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.
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.
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.
Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.
It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in that Declaration of Independence.
I care not much for a man’s religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.
That I am not a member of any Christian church is true; but I have never denied the truth of the Scriptures, and I have never spoken with intentional disrespect of religion in general, or of any denomination of Christians in particular.
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 do the very best I know how – the very best I can and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.
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.
I never had a policy I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.
No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.
No man is good enough to govern another man without the other’s consent.
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.
Whatever woman may cast her lot with mine, should any ever do so, it is my intention to do all in my power to make her happy and contented; and there is nothing I can imagine that would make me more unhappy than to fail in the effort.
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.
Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it.
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.
No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.
It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.
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.
There is another old poet whose name I do not now remember who said, ‘Truth is the daughter of Time.’
True patriotism is better than the wrong kind of piety.
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.
Marriage is neither heaven nor hell, it is simply purgatory.
Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.
The highest art is always the most religious, and the greatest artist is always a devout person.
I am humble Abraham Lincoln. I have been solicited by my friends to become a candidate for the Legislature. My politics are short and sweet, like the old woman’s dance.
In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all; and to the young, it comes with bitterest agony because it takes them unawares. I have had experience enough to know what I say.
Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.
The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.
The people will save their government, if the government itself will allow them.
We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we, as a people, can be engaged in.
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.
Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.
Gold is good in its place; but loving, brave, patriotic men are better than gold.
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.
The legal right of the Southern people to reclaim their fugitives I have constantly admitted. The legal right of Congress to interfere with their institution in the states, I have constantly denied.
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.
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.