Abraham Lincoln Quotes And Sayings

Abraham Lincoln was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through its Civil War—its bloodiest war and perhaps its greatest moral, constitutional, and political crisis. In doing so, he preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy.

In The End, It's Not The Years In Your Life That Count. It's The Life In Your Years.

To The Best Of My Judgment, I Have Labored For, And Not Against, The Union. As I Have Not Felt, So I Have Not Expressed Any Harsh Sentiment Towards Our Southern Brethren. I Have Constantly Declared, As I Really Believed, The Only Difference Between Them And Us Is The Difference Of Circumstances.

This Country, With Its Institutions, Belongs To The People Who Inhabit It. Whenever They Shall Grow Weary Of The Existing Government, They Can Exercise Their Constitutional Right Of Amending It, Or Exercise Their Revolutionary Right To Overthrow It.

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.

Let Reverence For The Laws Be Breathed By Every American Mother To The Lisping Babe That Prattles On Her Lap - Let It Be Taught In Schools, In Seminaries, And In Colleges; Let It Be Written In Primers, Spelling Books, And In Almanacs; Let It Be Preached From The Pulpit, Proclaimed In Legislative Halls, And Enforced In Courts Of Justice.

For My Part, I Desire To See The Time When Education - And By Its Means, Morality, Sobriety, Enterprise And Industry - Shall Become Much More General Than At Present, And Should Be Gratified To Have It In My Power To Contribute Something To The Advancement Of Any Measure Which Might Have A Tendency To Accelerate The Happy Period.

A Man Watches His Pear Tree Day After Day, Impatient For The Ripening Of The Fruit. Let Him Attempt To Force The Process, And He May Spoil Both Fruit And Tree. But Let Him Patiently Wait, And The Ripe Pear At Length Falls Into His Lap.

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.

The Man Who Could Go To Africa And Rob Her Of Her Children, And Then Sell Them Into Interminable Bondage, With No Other Motive Than That Which Is Furnished By Dollars And Cents, Is So Much Worse Than The Most Depraved Murderer That He Can Never Receive Pardon At My Hand.

The Highest Art Is Always The Most Religious, And The Greatest Artist Is Always A Devout Person.

Stand With Anybody That Stands Right, Stand With Him While He Is Right And Part With Him When He Goes Wrong.

Common Looking People Are The Best In The World: That Is The Reason The Lord Makes So Many Of Them.

Character Is Like A Tree And Reputation Like A Shadow. The Shadow Is What We Think Of It; The Tree Is The Real Thing.

He Who Molds The Public Sentiment... Makes Statutes And Decisions Possible Or Impossible To Make.

The Time Comes Upon Every Public Man When It Is Best For Him To Keep His Lips Closed.

I Will Prepare And Some Day My Chance Will Come.

I Don't Know Who My Grandfather Was; I Am Much More Concerned To Know What His Grandson Will Be.

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.

When I Hear A Man Preach, I Like To See Him Act As If He Were Fighting Bees.

When You Have Got An Elephant By The Hind Legs And He Is Trying To Run Away, It's Best To Let Him Run.

These Capitalists Generally Act Harmoniously And In Concert To Fleece The People; And Now That They Have Got Into A Quarrel With Themselves, We Are Called Upon To Appropriate The People's Money To Settle The Quarrel.

There Is Another Old Poet Whose Name I Do Not Now Remember Who Said, 'Truth Is The Daughter Of Time.'

Give Me Six Hours To Chop Down A Tree And I Will Spend The First Four Sharpening The Axe.

Any People Anywhere, Being Inclined And Having The Power, Have The Right To Rise Up, And Shake Off The Existing Government, And Form A New One That Suits Them Better. This Is A Most Valuable - A Most Sacred Right - A Right, Which We Hope And Believe, Is To Liberate The World.

A Friend Is One Who Has The Same Enemies As You Have.

With The Fearful Strain That Is On Me Night And Day, If I Did Not Laugh I Should Die.

Republicans Are For Both The Man And The Dollar, But In Case Of Conflict The Man Before The Dollar.

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.

Never Stir Up Litigation. A Worse Man Can Scarcely Be Found Than One Who Does This.

I Was Losing Interest In Politics, When The Repeal Of The Missouri Compromise Aroused Me Again. What I Have Done Since Then Is Pretty Well Known.

All The Armies Of Europe, Asia And Africa Combined, With All The Treasure Of The Earth (Our Own Excepted) In Their Military Chest; With A Buonaparte For A Commander, Could Not By Force, Take A Drink From The Ohio, Or Make A Track On The Blue Ridge, In A Trial Of A Thousand Years.

If Ever I Feel The Soul Within Me Elevate And Expand To Those Dimensions Not Wholly Unworthy Of Its Almighty Architect, It Is When I Contemplate The Cause Of My Country, Deserted By All The World Beside, And I Standing Up Boldly And Lone And Hurling Defiance At Her Victorious Oppressors.

In So Far As The Government Lands Can Be Disposed Of, I Am In Favor Of Cutting Up The Wild Lands Into Parcels So That Every Poor Man May Have A Home.

The Leading Rule For The Lawyer, As For The Man Of Every Calling, Is Diligence.

You Cannot Escape The Responsibility Of Tomorrow By Evading It Today.

You May Think It Was A Very Little Thing, And In These Days It Seems To Me Like A Trifle, But It Was A Most Important Incident In My Life. I Could Scarcely Credit That I, The Poor Boy, Had Earned A Dollar In Less Than A Day; That By Honest Work, I Had Earned A Dollar. I Was A More Hopeful And Thoughtful Boy From That Time.

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.

Illinois Surpasses Every Other Spot Of Equal Extent Upon The Face Of The Globe In Fertility Of Soil And In The Proportionable Amount Of The Same Which Is Sufficiently Level For Actual Cultivation.

There May Sometimes Be Ungenerous Attempts To Keep A Young Man Down; And They Will Succeed, Too, If He Allows His Mind To Be Diverted From Its True Channel To Brood Over The Attempted Injury.

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.

If The People Of Utah Shall Peacefully Form A State Constitution Tolerating Polygamy, Will The Democracy Admit Them Into The Union?

I Have Always Hated Slavery, I Think, As Much As Any Abolitionist. I Have Been An Old Line Whig. I Have Always Hated It, But I Have Always Been Quiet About It Until This New Era Of The Introduction Of The Nebraska Bill Began.

Slavery Is Founded In The Selfishness Of Man's Nature - Opposition To It Is His Love Of Justice. These Principles Are An Eternal Antagonism; And When Brought Into Collision So Fiercely, As Slavery Extension Brings Them, Shocks And Throes And Convulsions Must Ceaselessly Follow.

I Know That The Lord Is Always On The Side Of The Right; But It Is My Constant Anxiety And Prayer That I And This Nation May Be On The Lord's Side.

I Learned A Great Many Years Ago That In A Fight Between Husband And Wife, A Third Party Should Never Get Between The Woman's Skillet And The Man's Ax-helve.

I Never Had A Policy; I Have Just Tried To Do My Very Best Each And Every Day.

You Have To Do Your Own Growing No Matter How Tall Your Grandfather Was.

With Public Sentiment, Nothing Can Fail. Without It, Nothing Can Succeed.

In Giving Freedom To The Slave, We Assure Freedom To The Free - Honorable Alike In That We Give And What We Preserve. We Shall Nobly Save, Or Meanly Lose, The Last Best Hope Of Earth.

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.