Abraham Lincoln Quotes

will springs from the two elements of moral sense and self-intrest. speech at springfield illonis 29 of may 1856.

Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.

Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.

Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.

That some should be rich, shows that others may become rich, and, hence, is just encouragement to industry and enterprise.

Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.

You may deceive all the people part of the time, and part of the people all the time, but not all the people all the time.

The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.

He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met.

I will prepare and some day my chance will come.

When you have got an elephant by the hind leg, and he is trying to run away, it`s best to let him run.

Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived.

`Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man`s character, give him power.

It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.

No man is good enough to govern another man without that other`s consent.

Whatever you are, be a good one.

When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and true maxim that `a drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.` So with men. If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches his heart, which, say what he will, is the great highroad to his reason, and which, once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing him of the justice of your cause, if indeed that cause is really a good one.

No man has a good enough memory to make a successful liar.

If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?

I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crises. The great point is to bring them the real facts.

If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend.

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.

When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion.

If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.

It is difficult to make a man miserable while he feels worthy of himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him.

You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.

Let me not be understood as saying that there are no bad laws, nor that grievances may not arise for the redress of which no legal provisions have been made. I mean to say no such thing. But I do mean to say that although bad laws, if they exist, should be repealed as soon as possible, still, while they continue in force, for the sake of example they should be religiously observed.

All my life I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever the flower would grow in thought and mind.

The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.

I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for the day.

He reminds me of the man who murdered both his parents, and then when sentence was about to be pronounced pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan

Don`t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.

To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.

Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.

If there is anything that a man can do well, I say let him do it. Give him a chance.

A friend is one who has the same enemies as you have

Avoid popularity if you would have peace.

I don`t know who my grandfather was; I`m much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.

Important principles may and must be inflexible.

I will study and get ready, and perhaps my chance will come.

What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.

I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.

You may fool all the people some of the time, you can even fool some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.

We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.

What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried

Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history

If by the mere force of numbers a majority should deprive a minority of any clearly written constitutional right, it might, in a moral point of view, justify revolution

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us finish the work we are in

A statesman is he who thinks in the future generations, and a politician is he who thinks in the upcoming elections.

That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.

You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.

He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.

Stand with anybody that stands right, stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong.

I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors, and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views

Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.

With the catching ends the pleasure of the chase

Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren`t very new after all

Whenever there is a conflict between human rights and property rights, human rights must prevail

It often requires more courage to dare to do right than to fear to do wrong.

The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.

And in the end, it`s not the years in your life that count. It`s the life in your years.

Truth is generally the best vindication against slander.

Must a government be too strong for the liberties of its people or too weak to maintain its own existence?

All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother

The highest art is always the most religious, and the greatest artist is always a devout person.

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.

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.

No man is good enough to govern another man without that other`s consent.

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man`s character, give him power.