Abraham Lincoln Quotes

Abraham Lincoln quotes

Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Here are some best Abraham Lincoln quotes.

1. “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.”  — Abraham Lincoln

2. “He who would be no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves and, under a just God, cannot long retain it.”  — Abraham Lincoln

3. “It has so happened in all ages of the world that some have labored, and others have, without labor, enjoyed a large proportion of the fruits.”  — Abraham Lincoln

4. “If the people of Utah shall peacefully form a State Constitution tolerating polygamy, will the Democracy admit them into the Union?”  — Abraham Lincoln

5. “I understand a ship to be made for the carrying and preservation of the cargo, and so long as the ship can be saved, with the cargo, it should never be abandoned. This Union likewise should never be abandoned unless it fails and the possibility of its preservation shall cease to exist, without throwing passengers and cargo overboard.”  — Abraham Lincoln

6. “Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States - old as well as new - North as well as South.”  — Abraham Lincoln

7. “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.”  — Abraham Lincoln

8. “Everybody likes a compliment.”  — Abraham Lincoln

9. “Don't swap horses in crossing a stream.”  — Abraham Lincoln

10. “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”  — Abraham Lincoln

11. “I have always been an old-line Henry Clay Whig.”  — Abraham Lincoln

12. “Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored.”  — Abraham Lincoln

13. “I believe it is universally understood and acknowledged that all men will ever act correctly unless they have a motive to do otherwise.”  — Abraham Lincoln

14. “I don't like that man. I must get to know him better.”  — Abraham Lincoln

15. “I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.”  — Abraham Lincoln

16. “If ever I feel the soul within me elevate and expand to those dimensions not wholly unworthy of its Almighty Architect, it is when I contemplate the cause of my country, deserted by all the world beside, and I standing up boldly and lone and hurling defiance at her victorious oppressors.”  — Abraham Lincoln

17. “Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this.”  — Abraham Lincoln

18. “It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.”  — Abraham Lincoln

19. “Standing as I do, with my hand upon this staff, and under the folds of the American flag, I ask you to stand by me so long as I stand by it.”  — Abraham Lincoln

20. “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.”  — Abraham Lincoln

21. “I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.”  — Abraham Lincoln

22. “We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - 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.”  — Abraham Lincoln

23. “Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”  — Abraham Lincoln

24. “Let's have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.”  — Abraham Lincoln

25. “All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.”  — Abraham Lincoln

26. “If there is anything that a man can do well, I say let him do it. Give him a chance.”  — Abraham Lincoln

27. “My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.”  — Abraham Lincoln

28. “I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember when I did not so think and feel.”  — Abraham Lincoln

29. “I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.”  — Abraham Lincoln

30. “Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We, of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.”  — Abraham Lincoln

31. “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”  — Abraham Lincoln

32. “If I like a thing, it just sticks after once reading it or hearing it.”  — Abraham Lincoln

33. “Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.”  — Abraham Lincoln

34. “This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.”  — Abraham Lincoln

35. “If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.”  — Abraham Lincoln

36. “Concede that the new government of Louisiana is only to what it should be, as the egg is to the fowl; we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it.”  — Abraham Lincoln

37. “To the best of my judgment, I have labored for, and not against, the Union. As I have not felt, so I have not expressed any harsh sentiment towards our Southern brethren. I have constantly declared, as I really believed, the only difference between them and us is the difference of circumstances.”  — Abraham Lincoln

38. “I learned a great many years ago that in a fight between husband and wife, a third party should never get between the woman's skillet and the man's ax-helve.”  — Abraham Lincoln

39. “If you think you can slander a woman into loving you, or a man into voting for you, try it till you are satisfied.”  — Abraham Lincoln

40. “If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.”  — Abraham Lincoln

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

42. “' A living dog is better than a dead lion.' Judge Douglas, if not a dead lion for this work, is at least a caged and toothless one. How can he oppose the advances of slavery? He don't care anything about it.”  — Abraham Lincoln

43. “Knavery and flattery are blood relations.”  — Abraham Lincoln

44. “Among the friends of Union, there is great diversity of sentiment and of policy in regard to slavery and the African race among us.”  — Abraham Lincoln

45. “When the white man governs himself, that is self-government; but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self-government - that is despotism.”  — Abraham Lincoln

46. “I can express all my views on the slavery question by quotations from Henry Clay.”  — Abraham Lincoln

47. “I hold that while man exists, it is his duty to improve not only his own condition but to assist in ameliorating mankind.”  — Abraham Lincoln

48. “A man watches his pear tree day after day, impatient for the ripening of the fruit. Let him attempt to force the process, and he may spoil both fruit and tree. But let him patiently wait, and the ripe pear at length falls into his lap.”  — Abraham Lincoln

49. “Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.”  — Abraham Lincoln

50. “In my view of the present aspect of affairs, there is no need of bloodshed and war. There is no necessity for it. I am not in favor of such a course, and I may say in advance, there will be no bloodshed unless it be forced upon the government. The government will not use force unless force is used against it.”  — Abraham Lincoln

51. “Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.”  — Abraham Lincoln