Abraham Lincoln

President

1809-02-12 – 1865-04-15

Quotes by Abraham Lincoln

• In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed. Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes, or pronounces judicial decisions.

  Read quote

• If this country is ever demoralized, it will come from trying to live without work.

  Read quote

• We shall need all the anti-slavery feeling in the country, and more; you can go home and try to bring the people to your views, and you may say anything you like about me, if that will help... When the hour comes for dealing with slavery, I trust I will be willing to do my duty though it cost my life.

  Read quote

• It will not do to investigate the subject of religion too closely, as it is apt to lead to infidelity.

  Read quote

• Abraham Lincoln was asked by an aide about the church service he had attended. Lincoln responded that the minister was inspired, interesting, well-prepared, eloquent and the topic relevant. The aide said, "Then it was a good service?"Lincoln responded, "No." The aide protested, "But, Mr. President, you said that the minister was inspired, interesting, well-prepared, eloquent, and that the topic was relevant.—"Yes," replied Lincoln, —but he didn't challenge us to do any great thing.

  Read quote

• Be with a leader when he is right, stay with him when he is still right, but, leave him when he is wrong.

  Read quote

• . . . that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom— and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.- President Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg address, November 19, 1863

  Read quote

• When I get ready to talk to people, I spend two thirds of the time thinking what they want to hear and one third thinking about what I want to say.

  Read quote

• Hypocrite: The man who murdered his parents, and then pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan.

  Read quote

• 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.

  Read quote

• Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.

  Read quote

• Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and, under a just God cannot retain it.

  Read quote

• Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves

  Read quote

• Have I not destroyed my enemy when I have made him into my friend?

  Read quote

• If frienship is your weakest point then you are the strongest person in the world.

  Read quote

• You can have anything you want if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose.

  Read quote

• Get books, sit yourself down anywhere, and go to reading them yourself.

  Read quote

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

  Read quote

• In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all; and, to the young, it comes with bitterest agony, because it takes them unawares. The older have learned to ever expect it. I am anxious to afford some alleviation of your present distress. Perfect relief is not possible, except with time. You can not now realize that you will ever feel better. Is not this so? And yet it is a mistake. You are sure to be happy again. To know this, which is certainly true, will make you some less miserable now. I have had experience enough to know what I say; and you need only to believe it, to feel better at once.

  Read quote

• The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation is the philosophy of government in the next.

  Read quote