Quotes By Abraham Lincoln

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

The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.

I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end... I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me.

When I am getting ready to reason with a man, I spend one-third of my time thinking about myself and what I am going to say and two-thirds about him and what he is going to say.

I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.

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

The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of liberty.

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

I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.

I don't know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.

If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.

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

Don't worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.

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.

If you call a tail a leg, how many legs has a dog? Five? No, calling a tail a leg don't make it a leg.

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

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.

Some day I shall be President.

Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose - and you allow him to make war at pleasure.

I'm a slow walker, but I never walk back.

Lets have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.

Knavery and flattery are blood relations.

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.

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

Every one desires to live long, but no one would be old.

As our case is new, we must think and act anew.

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.

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.

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

These men ask for just the same thing, fairness, and fairness only. This, so far as in my power, they, and all others, shall have.