Quotes by Abraham Lincoln
Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done today.
Lincoln, Abraham
A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half-slave and half-free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved. I do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.
Lincoln, Abraham
Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.
Lincoln, Abraham
You think slavery is right and should be extended; while we think slavery is wrong and ought to be restricted. That I suppose is the rub. It certainly is the only substantial difference between us.
Lincoln, Abraham
Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it.
Lincoln, Abraham
Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived.
Lincoln, Abraham
I am not a Know-Nothing. That is certain. How could I be? How can any one who abhors the oppression of negroes, be in favor of degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that "all men are created equal." We now practically read it "all men are created equal, except Negroes." When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal, except Negroes and foreigners and Catholics." When it comes to this, I shall prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty. To Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.
Lincoln, Abraham
Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes.
Lincoln, Abraham
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.
Lincoln, Abraham
With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die.
Lincoln, Abraham
What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.
Lincoln, Abraham
All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother.
Lincoln, Abraham
It is better to keep one's mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and resolve all doubt.
Lincoln, Abraham
Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
Lincoln, Abraham
Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.
Lincoln, Abraham
Whenever there is a conflict between human rights and property rights, human rights must prevail.
Lincoln, Abraham
I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me.
Lincoln, Abraham
I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.
Lincoln, Abraham
No matter how much the cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.
Lincoln, Abraham
Find out what whiskey he drinks and send all of my generals a case, if it will get the same results. - in reply to comments about General Grant's drinking problems
Lincoln, Abraham
Hypocrite: the man who murdered both his parents... pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan.
Lincoln, Abraham
It has ever been my experience that folks who have no vices, have very few virtues.
Lincoln, Abraham
I am rather inclined to silence, and whether that be wise or not, it is at least more unusual nowadays to find a man who can hold his tongue than to find one who cannot.
Lincoln, Abraham
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.
Lincoln, Abraham
Every man over forty is responsible for his face.
Lincoln, Abraham
We must not promise what we ought not, lest we be called on to perform what we cannot.
Lincoln, Abraham
I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races - that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything.
Lincoln, Abraham
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. I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what's said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.
Lincoln, Abraham