Abraham Lincoln Quotes

“Avoid popularity if you would have peace.”

“I understand that it is a maxim of law, that a poor plea may be a good plea to a bad declaration.”

“Labor is the true standard of value.”

“Now if you should hear any one say that Lincoln don't [sic] want to go to Congress, I wish you as a personal friend of mine, wouldtell him that you have reason to believe he is mistaken.”

“Commitment is what transforms a promise into a reality... Commitment is the stuff character is made of; the power to change the face of things. It is the daily triumph of integrity over skepticism.”

“It is with your aid, as the people, that I think we shall be able to preserve - not the country, for the country will preserve itself, but the institutions of the country - those institutions which have made us free, intelligent and happy - the most free, the most intelligent, and the happiest people on the globe.”

“If you are resolutely determined to make a lawyer of yourself, the thing is more than half done already. It is but a small matter whether you read with anyone or not. I did not read with anyone. Get the books, and read and study them till you understand them in their principal features; and that is the main thing. It is of no consequence to be in a large town while you are reading. I read at New Salem, which never had three hundred people living in it. The books, and your capacity for understanding them, are just the same in all places.”

“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”

“The president is the cube of ice one places in the pot of a houseplant, providing a steady amount of nourishment over the course of a hot day. A good description of the job and also a fantastic bit of practical household advice.”

“Our eldest boy, Bob, has been away from us nearly a year at school, and will enter Harvard University this month. He promises verywell, considering we never controlled him much.”

“To lead, you must touch men's hearts.”

“No man is good enough to govern another man without the other's consent.”

“Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid.”

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

“The assertion that 'all men are created equal' was of no practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain and it was placed in the Declaration not for that, but for future use.”

“Received as I am by the members of a legislature the majority of whom do not agree with me in political sentiments, I trust that I may have their assistance in piloting the ship of state through this voyage, surrounded by perils as it is; for if it should suffer wreck now, there will be no pilot ever needed for another voyage.”

“You dislike the emancipation proclamation; and, perhaps, would have it retracted. You say it is unconstitutional - I think differently.”

“I sincerely wish war was a pleasanter and easier business than it is, but it does not admit of holidays.”

“I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.”

“With this honor devolves upon you also a corresponding responsibility. As the country herein trusts you, so under God it will sustain you.”

“The Cause of civil liberty must not be surrendered at the end of one, or even one hundred defeats.”

“I am the President of the United States of America, clothed in immense power! You will procure me these votes.”

“While I have often said that all men out to be free, yet I would allow those colored persons to be slaves who want to be; and next to them those white persons who argue in favor of making other people slaves. I am in favor of giving an opportunity to such white men to try it on for themselves.”

“Our political problem now is, "Can we as a nation continue together permanently - forever - half slave and half free?"”

“When Southern people tell us they are no more responsible for the origin of slavery than we are, I acknowledge the fact. When it is said that the institution exists, and that it is very difficult to get rid of it in any satisfactory way, I can understand and appreciate the saying.”