Abraham Lincoln Quotes

It's time for me to go. But I would rather stay.

Reputation is like fine china: Once broken it's very hard to repair.

Nothing is more damaging to you than to do something that you believe is wrong.

the better angels of our nature

Seriously, I do not think I am fit for the Presidency.

We hoped for a happy termination of this terrible war long before this; but God knows best, and has ruled otherwise. We shall yet acknowledge His wisdom and our own error therein.

If any man tells you he loves America, yet hates labor, he is a liar. If any man tells you he trusts America, yet fears labor, he is a fool.

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.

We seek not to overthrow the constitution, but to overthrow those who would prevert it.

Important principles may, and must, be inflexible.

Let us diligently apply the means, never doubting that a just God, in his own good time, will give us the rightful result.

Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new at all.

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.

Let us strive on to finish the work we are in.

The purposes of the Almighty are perfect, and must prevail, though we erring mortals may fail to accurately perceive them in advance.

I could not have slept tonight if I had left that helpless little creature to perish on the ground.

I can make a General in five minutes but a good horse is hard to replace.

I fear explanations explanatory of things explained.

I do not think I could myself, be brought to support a man for office, whom I knew to be an open enemy of, and scoffer at, religion.

We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.

You can always lie to others and hide your actions from them... but you can not fool yourself

I do not boast that God is on my side, I humbly pray that I am on God's side.

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.

God bless the Methodist Church - bless all the churches - and blessed be God, Who, in this our great trial, giveth us the churches.

The struggle of today is not altogether for today - it is for a vast future also.

Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time.

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.

There is no greater injustice than to wring your profits from the sweat of another man's brow.

I am not concerned that you have fallen -- I am concerned that you arise.

Contrary to his infallibly "honest" image, Abe wasn't above lying so long as it served a noble purpose.

To correct the evils, great and small, which spring from want of sympathy and from positive enmity among strangers, as nations or as individuals, is one of the highest functions of civilization.

I don't s'pose anybody on earth likes gingerbread better'n I do-and gets less'n I do.

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

Any society that takes away from those most capable and gives to the least will perish.

Next to creating a life the finest thing a man can do is save one.

I believe this Government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.

I walk slowly, but never backwards.

God must love the common man, he made so many of them.

Whatever уоu are, bе а good one.

Teach economy. That is one of the first and highest virtues. It begins with saving money.

Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other right.

There is no America without labor, and to fleece the one is to rob the other.

The people when rightly and fully trusted will return the trust.

If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.

Killing the dog does not cure the bite.

As a peacemaker the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man.

We cannot escape history.

I laugh because I must not cry, that is all, that is all.

Familiarize yourself with the chains of bondage and you prepare your own limbs to wear them.

I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me and the bankers in the rear. Of the two, the one at my rear is my greatest foe.