Abraham Lincoln Quotes

Politicians are a set of men who have interests aside from the interests of the people and who, to say the most of them, are, taken as a mass, at least one long step removed from honest men

Let reverence for the laws . . . become the political religion of the nation.

I cannot imagine anyone looking at the sky and denying God.

All that harms labor is treason to America.

This human struggle and scramble for office, for a way to live without work, will finally test the strength of our institutions.

Law is nothing else but the best reason of wise men applied for ages to the transactions and business of mankind.

All creation is a mine, and every man a miner.

Towering genius disdains a beaten path ... It scorns to tread in the footsteps of any predecessor, however illustrious. It thirsts for distinction.

We were proclaiming ourselves political hypocrites before the world, by thus fostering Human Slavery and proclaiming ourselves, at the same time, the sole friends of Human Freedom.

As a general rule, I abstain from reading reports of attacks upon myself, wishing not to be provoked by that to which I cannot properly offer an answer.

I know the hole he went in at, but I can't tell you what hole he will come out of.

One's only security in life comes from doing something uncommonly well.

As President, I have no eyes but constitutional eyes; I cannot see you.

The loss of enemies does not compensate for the loss of friends.

Sending armies to McClellan is like shoveling fleas across a barnyard, not half of them get there.

I expect to maintain this contest until successful, or till I die, or am conquered, or my term expires, or Congress or the country forsakes me.

His argument is as thin as the homeopathic soup that was made by oiling the shadow of a pigeon that had been starved to death.

I could write shorter sermons but when I get started I'm too lazy to stop

Many free countries have lost their liberty, and ours may lose hers; but, if she shall, be it my proudest plume, not that I was the last to desert, but that I never deserted her.

He who sees cruelty and does nothing about it is himself cruel.

We hope all danger may be overcome; but to conclude that no danger may ever arise would itself be extremely dangerous.

My father taught me to work, but not to love it. I never did like to work, and I don't deny it. I'd rather read, tell stories, crack jokes, talk, laugh -- anything but work.

I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be 'the Union as it was'.

We shall not fail - if we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate, or mistakes delay it, but, sooner or later, the victory is sure to come.

Friends, I agree with you in Providence; but I believe in the Providence of the most men, the largest purse, and the longest cannon.

The land-grant university system is being built on behalf of the people, who have invested in these public universities their hopes, their support, and their confidence.

The sense of obligation to continue is present in all of us. A duty to strive is the duty of us all. I felt a call to that duty.

I hold, that in contemplation of universal law, and of the Constitution, the Union of these States is perpetual.

War, at the best, is terrible, and this war of ours, in its magnitude and in its duration, is one of the most terrible.

My Dear McClellan, if you don't want to use the army I should like to borrow it for a while. Yours respectfully.

I am in favor of a national bank...in favor of the internal improvements system and a high protective tariff.

You have confidence in yourself, which is valuable, if not an indispensable quality.

Anxiety beclouds the future.

During the Civil War, on hearing complaints that Gen. Ulysses S. Grant drank alcohol to excess Find out what Grant drinks and send a barrel of it to each of my other generals!

In law it is good policy to never plead what you need not, lest you oblige yourself to prove what you can not.

When the white man governs himself, that is self-government; but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self-government-that is despotism.

You know I dislike slavery; and you fully admit the abstract wrong of it.

I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me.

I am greatly obliged to you, and to all who have come forward at the call of their country.

You are green, it is true; but they are green also. You are all green alike.

I have an irrepressible desire to live till I can be assured that the world is a little better for my having lived in it.

Certainly there is no contending against the Will of God; but still there is some difficulty in ascertaining, and applying it, to particular cases.

The man does not live who is more devoted to peace than I am. None who would do more to preserve it.

That everyone may receive at least a moderate education appears to be an objective of vital importance.

I am very little inclined on any occasion to say anything unless I hope to produce some good by it.

With high hope for the future, no prediction is ventured.

A tendancy to melancholy...let it be observed, is a misfortune, not a fault.

I sincerely wish war was a pleasanter and easier business than it is, but it does not admit of holidays.

My God! My God! What will the country say?

In any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall have as weak, and as strong; as silly and as wise; asbad and good.