Abraham Lincoln Quotes

“I told myself, "Lincoln, you can never make a lawyer if you do not understand what demonstrate means." So I left my situation in Springfield, went home to my father's house, and stayed there till I could give any proposition in the six books of Euclid at sight. I then found out what "demonstrate" means, and went back to my law studies.”

“Whether slavery shall go into Nebraska, or other new territories, is not a matter of exclusive concern to the people who may go there. The whole nation is interested that the best use shall be made of these territories. We want them for the homes of free white people.”

“[Uniting workers should not] lead to a war upon property, or the owners of property.”

“Let every man remember that to violate the law, is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the character of his own, and his children's liberty.”

“My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.”

“Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.”

“Let us strive on to finish the work we are in.”

“A long visit to a friend is often a great bore. Never make people twice glad.”

“I don't s'pose anybody on earth likes gingerbread better'n I do-and gets less'n I do.”

“It doesn't mater if you're a slow walker, so long as you don't walk backwards.”

“It is bad to be poor. I shall go to the wall for bread and meat, if I neglect my business this year as well as last.”

“Thus let bygones be bygones. Let past differences, as nothing be.”

“You can not fail in any laudable object, unless you allow your mind to be improperly directed.”

“The love of property and consciousness of right and wrong have conflicting places in our organization, which often makes a man's course seem crooked, his conduct a riddle.”

“But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or to detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.”

“Calling a tail a leg does not make it a leg.”

“Towering genius...thirsts and burns for distinction; and, if possible, it will have it, whether at the expense of emancipating slaves or enslaving freeman.”

“As President, I have no eyes but constitutional eyes; I cannot see you.”

“Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?”

“How many legs does a dog have if you call his tail a leg? Four. Saying that a tail is a leg doesn't make it a leg.”

“My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.”

“Being President is like the man who was tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail... A man in the crowd asked how he liked it, and his reply was that if it wasn't for the honor of the thing, he would much rather walk.”

“At 50, if you are on a diet on your birthday, you can't eat a piece of your birthday cake. So grab two, a piece in each hand and, lo and behold, you will be on a balanced diet! Happy birthday, old chum!”

“Why was the amendment, expressly declaring the right of the people to exclude slavery, voted down? Plainly enough now, the adoption of it would have spoiled the niche for the Dred Scott decision.”

“Your good mother tells me you are feeling very badly in your new situation. Allow me to assure you it is a perfect certainty that you will, very soon, feel better - quite happy - if you only stick to the resolution you have taken to procure a military education.... On the contrary, if you falter, and give up, you will lose the power of keeping any resolution, and will regret it all your life.”