Abraham Lincoln Quotes

We may all deserve hell, but some of us deserve it sooner than others.

The press has no better friend than I am, no one who is more ready to acknowledge . . . its tremendous power for both good and evil.

But fight we must; and conquer we shall; in the end.

It's not me who can't keep a secret. It's the people I tell that can't.

Reduce the supply of black labor by colonizing the black laborer out of the country, and by precisely so much you increase the demand for and wages of white labor.

The political horizon looks dark and lowering; but the people, under Providence, will set all right.

Cling to liberty and right; battle fro them; leed for them; die for them, if need be; and have confidence in God.

. . . peace is a thing which a person must be willing to fight for . . .

The only security a man can ever have is the ability to do a job uncommonly well.

I trust that as He shall further open the way, I will be ready to walk therein, relying on His help and trusting in His goodness and wisdom.

I will either be America's greatest president or its last.

Our political problem now is, "Can we as a nation continue together permanently - forever - half slave and half free?"

We, on our side, are praying to Him to give us victory, because we believe we are right; but those on the other side pray to Him, look for victory, believing they are right. What must He think of us?

If there is a worse place than Hell, I am in it.

We must work earnestly in the best light He gives us.

What is to be, will be, and no prayers of ours can arrest the decree.

It is the man who does not want to express an opinion whose opinion I want.

Everybody appreciates a compliment.

A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.

My experience has taught me that a man who has no vices has damned few virtues.

Persuasion, kind, unassuming persuasion, should be adopted to influence the conduct of men. The opposite course would be a reversal of human nature, which is God's decree and can never be reversed.

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

And upon this act [Emancipation Proclamation]...I invoke...the gracious favor of Almighty God.

I am for . . . each individual doing just as he chooses in all matters which concern nobody else.

My policy is to have no policy.

I will learn, the opportunity will come.

The people know their rights, and they are never slow to assert and maintain them, when they are invaded.

Calling a tail a leg does not make it a leg.

The trouble with Hooker is that he's got his headquarters where his hindquarters aught to be.

Let us do nothing through passion and ill temper.

The blessing always comes back to the door of the author.

Always let your subordinates know that the honor will be all theirs if they succeed and the blame will be yours if they fail.

The worst thing you can do for anyone you care about is anything that they can do on their own.

Believing everybody is dangerous, but believing nobody is more dangerous.

I am slow to learn and slow to forget that which I have learned. My mind is like a piece of steel, very hard to scratch any thing on it and almost impossible after you get it there to rub it out.

Politics, as a trade, finds most and leaves nearly all dishonest.

And then, there will be some black men who can remember that, with silent tongue, and clenched teeth, and steady eye, and well-poised bayonnet, they have helped mankind on to this great consummation.

Almost every thing, especially of governmental policy, is an inseparable compound of the two [good and evil].

The man who stands by and says nothing, when the peril of his government is discussed, can not be misunderstood. If not hindered, he is sure to help the enemy.

Ready are we all to cry out and ascribe motives when our toes are pinched.

Bad promises are better broken than kept.

It is for us and our time...to say the right makes might.

When you lack interest in the case the job will very likely lack skill and diligence in the performance.

I confess I hate to see the poor creatures hunted down but I bite my lip and keep quiet.

I have no wealthy or popular relations to recommend me.

It is not the qualified voters, but the qualified voters who choose to vote, that constitute political power.

Too big to cry too young to laugh.

It is not 'Is God on my side', but 'Am I on God's side'.

If there is anything which it is the duty of the whole people to never entrust to any hands but their own, that thing is the preservation and perpetuity of their own liberties and institutions.

If 600,000 people have to die in order for the nation to live, then 600,000 people will die.