Quotes by Abraham Lincoln
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Let us at all times remember that all American citizens are brothers of a common country, and should dwell together in bonds of fraternal feeling.

The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured and continued by the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object.

If not re-elected in 1864 then it will be my duty to so co-operate with the President elect, as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his election on such ground that he can not possibly save it afterwards.

To secure to each laborer the whole product of his labor, or as nearly as possible, is a worthy object of any good government.

And I am glad to know that there is a system of labor -- where the laborer can strike if he wants to! I would to God that such a system prevailed all over the world.

I am glad to see that a system of labor prevails under which laborers can strike when they want to.

I believe that every individual is naturally entitled to do as he pleases with himself and the fruits of his labor, so far as it in no way interferes with any other men's rights.

The leading rule for the lawyer, as for the man of every other calling, is diligence. Leave nothing for to-morrow which can be done to-day.

All creation is a mine, and every man a miner. The whole earth, and all within it, upon it, and round about it, including himself ... are the infinitely various leads from which, man, from the first, was to dig out his destiny.

Care for him who shall have borne the battle.

The US patent system adds the fuel of interest to the fire of genius in the discovery and production of new and useful things.

You cannot have the right to do what is wrong!

Stand with anyone that is right; stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong.

If there is anything that links the human to the divine, it is the courage to stand by a principle when everybody else rejects it.

Moral principle is a looser bond than pecuniary interest.

It is a sin to be silent when it is your duty to protest.

That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred ans sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any state or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thence forward, and forever free.

As a general rule, I abstain from reading reports of attacks upon myself, wishing not to be provoked by that to which I cannot properly offer an answer.

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.

Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him, who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulty.

Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in our bosoms.

Towering genius disdains a beaten path ... It scorns to tread in the footsteps of any predecessor, however illustrious. It thirsts for distinction.

That everyone may receive at least a moderate education appears to be an objective of vital importance.

Honest statesmanship is the wise employment of individual meanness for the public good.

It is not the qualified voters, but the qualified voters who choose to vote, that constitute political power.

With educated people, I suppose, punctuation is a matter of rule; with me it is a matter of feeling. But I must say I have a great respect for the semicolin; it's a useful little chap.

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.

A statesman is he who thinks in the future generations, and a politician is he who thinks in the upcoming elections.

Quarrel not at all. No man resolved to make the most of himself can spare time for personal contention.

The solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.

Ere long the most valuable of all arts will be the art of deriving a comfortable subsistence from the smallest area of soil. No community where every member possesses the art can ever be the victim of oppression in any of its forms.

Ready are we all to cry out and ascribe motives when our toes are pinched.

Law is nothing else but the best reason of wise men applied for ages to the transactions and business of mankind.

What has ever threatened our liberty and prosperity save and except this institution of Slavery?

I am in favor of a national bank...in favor of the internal improvements system and a high protective tariff.

It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination.

I say now, however, as I have all the while said, that on the territorial question -- that is, the question of extending slavery under the national auspices, -- I am inflexible. I am for no compromise which assists or permits the extension of the institution on soil owned by the nation.

If we know where we are and something about how we got there, we might see where we are trending -- and if the outcomes which lie naturally in our course are unacceptable, to make timely change.

Persuasion, kind, unassuming persuasion, should be adopted to influence the conduct of men. The opposite course would be a reversal of human nature, which is God's decree and can never be reversed.

When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind, unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and a true maxim, that 'a drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.'

It has been said that one bad general is better than two good ones, and the saying is true if taken to mean no more than that an army is better directed by a single mind, though inferior, than by two superior ones at variance and cross-purposes with each other.

I therefore consider that in view of the Constitution and the laws, the Union is unbroken; and to the extent of my ability I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States.

No State, upon it own mere motion, can lawfully get out of the Union. Resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally nothing. I therefore consider that the Union is unbroken. There needs to be no bloodshed or violence; and there shall be none, unless forced upon the national authority.

The strongest bond of human sympathy outside the family relation should be one uniting working people of all nations and tongues and kindreds.

The working men are the basis of all governments, for the plain reason that they are the most numerous.

If you want your name to be remembered after your death either do something worth writing or write some thing worth reading.

Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition.

All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.

You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry.

Those who look for the bad in people will surely find it.

A farce or comedy is best played; a tragedy is best read at home.

Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their violation by others.

If we never try, we shall never succeed.

I do not wish you to believe that I assume to be any better than others who have gone before me.

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.

Women are the only people I am afraid of who I never thought would hurt me.

Well, I wish some of you would tell me the brand of whiskey that Grant drinks. I would like to send a barrel of it to my other generals.

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.

The greatest fine art of the future will be the making of a comfortable living from a small piece of land.

The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of liberty.

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.

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.

The better angels of our nature.

Commitment is what transforms a promise into reality.

You are green, it is true; but they are green also. You are all green alike.

We were proclaiming ourselves political hypocrites before the world, by thus fostering Human Slavery and proclaiming ourselves, at the same time, the sole friends of Human Freedom.

If any man tells you he loves America, yet hates labor, he is a liar. If any man tells you he trusts America, yet fears labor, he is a fool.

Property is the fruit of labor; property is desirable; it is a positive good.

Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.

Life is hard but so very beautiful.

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. That every man may receive at least a moderate education...appears to be an object of vital importance.

Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

My wife is as handsome as when she was a girl, and I...fell in love with her; and what is more, I have never fallen out.

It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

That we 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.

When arguing with a fool, make sure the opponent isn't doing the exact same thing.

I hear you have abolitionists here. We have a few in Illinois, but we shot one the other day.

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it.

Freedom is the natural condition of the human race, in which the Almighty intended men to live. Those who fight the purpose of the Almighty will not succeed. They always have been, they always will be beaten.

I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true.

Force is all conquering, but it's victories are short lived.

In times like the present, men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be responsible through time and eternity.

We cannot escape history.

Among free men there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet.

Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving the Constitution of the United States as our fathers made it inviolate. The people of the United States are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.

That some should be rich, shows that others may become rich, and, hence, is just encouragement to industry and enterprise.

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

I laugh because I must not cry, that is all, that is all.

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.

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

We live in the midst of alarms; anxiety beclouds the future; we expect some new disaster with each newspaper we read.

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.