Abraham Lincoln was an American statesman, politician, and lawyer who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in April 1865.
He is regarded as one of America’s greatest heroes due to his role as savior of the Union and emancipator of slaves. Thought provoking Abraham Lincoln quotes will broaden your perspective, make you wiser and bring the best out of you.
If you’re searching for famous life sayings of all time that perfectly capture what you’d like to say or just want to feel inspired yourself, browse through an amazing collection of the most powerful Martin Luther King Jr. quotes, best Eleanor Roosevelt quotes, and inspiring Malcolm X quotes.
Best Abraham Lincoln Quotes
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
Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be. Abraham Lincoln
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
Whatever you are, be a good one. Abraham Lincoln
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
Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends? Abraham Lincoln
Most folks are about as happy as they make their minds up to be. Abraham Lincoln
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. Abraham Lincoln
No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar. Abraham Lincoln
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
Human action can be modified to some extent, but human nature cannot be changed. Abraham Lincoln
I’m a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn’t have the heart to let him down. Abraham Lincoln
Love is the chain to lock a child to its parent. Abraham Lincoln
Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new after all. Abraham Lincoln
There are no bad pictures; that’s just how your face looks sometimes. Abraham Lincoln
The best way to predict your future is to create it. Abraham Lincoln
You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry. Abraham Lincoln
No man is poor who has a Godly mother. Abraham Lincoln
Common looking people are the best in the world that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them. Abraham Lincoln
We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. Abraham Lincoln
He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help. Abraham Lincoln
I laugh because I must not cry, that is all, that is all. Abraham Lincoln
Tact the ability to describe others as they see themselves. Abraham Lincoln
Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe. Abraham Lincoln
A farce or comedy is best played; a tragedy is best read at home. Abraham Lincoln
Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters. Abraham Lincoln
Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people can be engaged in. Abraham Lincoln
I will prepare and some day my chance will come. Abraham Lincoln
For people who like that kind of a book that is the kind of book they will like. Abraham Lincoln
The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time. Abraham Lincoln
I am rather inclined to silence, and whether that be wise or not, it is at least more unusual nowadays to find a man who can hold his tongue than to find one who cannot. Abraham Lincoln
My father taught me to work, but not to love it. I never did like to work, and I don’t deny it. I’d rather read, tell stories, crack jokes, talk, laugh anything but work. Abraham Lincoln
I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better. Abraham Lincoln
If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. It is true that you may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. Abraham Lincoln
When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. Abraham Lincoln
All I have learned, I learned from books. Abraham Lincoln
You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today. Abraham Lincoln
Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle. Abraham Lincoln
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt. Abraham Lincoln
I care not for a man’s religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it. Abraham Lincoln
Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done today. Abraham Lincoln
You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today. Abraham Lincoln
Adhere to your purpose and you will soon feel as well as you ever did. 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. Abraham Lincoln
I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being. Abraham Lincoln
And in the end it is not the years in your life that count, it’s the life in your years. Abraham Lincoln
I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday. Abraham Lincoln
Every man’s happiness is his own responsibility. Abraham Lincoln
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. Abraham Lincoln
If I am killed, I can die but once; but to live in constant dread of it, is to die over and over again. Abraham Lincoln
You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was. Abraham Lincoln
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power. Abraham Lincoln
You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves. Abraham Lincoln
I would rather be a little nobody, then to be an evil somebody. Abraham Lincoln
If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee. Abraham Lincoln
I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day. Abraham Lincoln
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, and beer. Abraham Lincoln
Always bear in mind that your own resolution to success is more important than any other thing. Abraham Lincoln
It is difficult to make a man miserable while he feels worthy of himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him. Abraham Lincoln
I’m a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn’t have the heart to let him down. Abraham Lincoln
A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved I do not expect the house to fall but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Abraham Lincoln
I have a congenital aversion to failure. Abraham Lincoln
I am not concerned that you have fallen I am concerned that you arise. Abraham Lincoln
I happen temporarily to occupy this big White House. I am living witness that any one of your children may look to come here as my father’s child has. Abraham Lincoln
As a nation, we began by declaring that all men are created equal. We now practically read it all men are created equal, except negroes. When the Know Nothings get control, it will read all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics. When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy. Abraham Lincoln
The greatest fine art of the future will be the making of a comfortable living from a small piece of land. Abraham Lincoln
The better part of one’s life consists of his friendships. Abraham Lincoln
I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong. Abraham Lincoln
The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us
from the support of a cause we believe to be just. Abraham Lincoln
And having thus chosen our course, without guile, and with pure purpose, let us renew our trust in God, and go forward without fear, and with manly hearts. Abraham Lincoln
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. Abraham Lincoln
Human nature will not change. In any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as good. Abraham Lincoln
From whence shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall some trans Atlantic military giant step the earth and crush us at a blow? Never. All the armies of Europe and Asia could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River or make a track on the Blue Ridge in the trial of a thousand years. No, if destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men we will live forever or die by suicide. Abraham Lincoln
I know not how to aid you, save in the assurance of one of mature age, and much severe experience, that you can not fail, if you resolutely determine, that you will not. Abraham Lincoln
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. Abraham Lincoln
I have not permitted myself, gentlemen, to conclude that I am the best man in the country; but I am reminded, in this connection, of a story of an old Dutch farmer who remarked to a companion once that it was not best to swap horses while crossing streams. Abraham Lincoln
I do the very best I know how, the very best I can, and I mean to keep on doing so until the end. Abraham Lincoln
The demon of intemperance ever seems to have delighted in sucking the blood of genius and of generosity. Abraham Lincoln
The Bible is not my book nor Christianity my profession. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma. Abraham Lincoln
This is a world of compensations; and 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, can not long retain it. Abraham Lincoln
We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it. Abraham Lincoln
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Abraham Lincoln
I have come to the conclusion never again to think of marrying, and for this reason, I can never be satisfied with anyone who would be blockhead enough to have me. Abraham Lincoln
In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Abraham Lincoln
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. Abraham Lincoln
You think slavery is right and should be extended; while we think slavery is wrong and ought to be restricted. That I suppose is the rub. It certainly is the only substantial difference between us. Abraham Lincoln
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Abraham Lincoln
I needed this one today-
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.
I am sure you have put so much efforts in collection these quotes at one place. Your hard work brought a smile on my face. I am bookmarking this post. Thank you for this amazing work.