Abraham lincoln quotes

The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.

Kindness is the only service that will stand the storm of life and not wash out.

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. -Speech at Clinton, Illinois, September 8, 1854.

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

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 all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

A house divided against itself cannot stand.

I walk slowly, but never backwards.

You can please some of the people some of the time, all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can never please all of the people all of the time.

Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.

No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.

If you trust, you will be disappointed occasionally, but if you mistrust, you will be miserable all the time.

When you make it to the top, turn and reach down for the person behind you.

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.

A friend is one who has the same enemies as you have.

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.

Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

Kindness is the only service that will stand the storm of life and not wash out. It will wear well and will be remembered long after the prism of politeness or the complexion of courtesy has faded away.

Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.

I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country... corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.

How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.

The most reliable way to predict the future is to create it.

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

Nothing is stronger than gentleness.

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.

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

The money power preys on the nation in times of peace, and conspires against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. It denounces, as public enemies, all who question its methods or throw light upon its crimes.

You can’t make a weak man strong by making a strong man weak

The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend.

Our republican system was meant for a homogeneous people. As long as blacks continue to live with the whites they constitute a threat to the national life. Family life may also collapse and the increase of mixed breed bastards may some day challenge the supremacy of the white man.

Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable - a most sacred right - a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world.

If you love something, set it free.

I will say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races: that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people.

Should my administration prove to be a very wicked one...or a very foolish one, if you, the people, are true to yourselves and the Constitution, there is little harm I can do, thank God.

Commitment is what transforms a promise into reality.

The trouble with too many people is they believe the realm of truth always lies within their vision.

A nation that does not honor its heroes will not long endure.

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

Those who are ready to sacrifice freedom for security ultimately will lose both.

The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly.

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.

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

Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage and you prepare your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of others, you have lost the genius of your own independence and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises among you.

The strength of a nation lies in the homes of its people.

You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.

In regards to this great Book [the Bible], I have but to say it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this Book. But for it we could not know right from wrong. All things most desirable for man's welfare, here and hereafter, are found portrayed in it.

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

Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought

Behind the cloud the sun is still shining.

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.

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.

You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence. You cannot help people permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.

When I left Springfield [to become President] I asked the people to pray for me. I was not a Christian. When I buried my son, the severest trial of my life, I was not a Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg and saw the graves of thousands of our soldiers, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ.

We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.

If we exchange one dollar, we both have one dollar each. But if we exchange one good thought, we both have two good thoughts

A child is a person who is going to carry on what you have started ... He will assume control of your cities, states and nations. He is going to move in and take over your churches, schools, universities, and corporations ... The fate of humanity is in his hands.

If you understand what you're doing, you're not learning anything.

What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.

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.

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.

Discipline is choosing between what you want now, and what you want most.

If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.

Nothing is more damaging to you than to do something that you believe is wrong.

In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.

If this country is ever demoralized, it will come from trying to live without work.

You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.

Violence begins where knowledge ends.

What are you gonna do for a face when the baboon wants his ass back?

Tell the truth and you won't have so much to remember

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

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.

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.

It is the eternal struggle between these two principles - right and wrong. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time and will ever continue to struggle. It is the same spirit that says, "You work and toil and earn bread, and I'll eat it."

A day spent helping no one but yourself is a day wasted.

Let the people know the truth and the country is safe.

You cannot fail unless you quit.

Nations do not die from invasion; they die from internal rottenness.

Whatever уоu are, bе а good one.

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.

Every man's happiness is his own responsibility.

Great men are ordinary men with extra ordinary determination.

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.

Life is hard but so very beautiful

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

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.

I do not boast that God is on my side, I humbly pray that I am on God's side.

If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would do that. I have here stated my purpose according to my official duty, and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men, everywhere, could be free.

You know you've reached middle age when all you exercise is caution

To stand in silence when they should be protesting makes cowards of men.

I am busily engaged in the study of the Bible. I believe it is God's word because it finds me where I am.

Be with a leader when he is right, stay with him when he is still right, but, leave him when he is wrong.

The ballot is stronger than the bullet.

If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.

Hypocrite: The man who murdered his parents, and then pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan.

Tis better people think you a fool, then open your mouth and erase all doubt.

We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. 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!

Every man is born an original, but sadly, most men die copies.

You must remember that some things legally right are not morally right.

Politicians are a set of men who have interests aside from the interests of the people and who, to say the most of them, are, taken as a mass, at least one long step removed from honest men

I would rather be a little nobody, then to be a evil somebody.

Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.

Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.

It often requires more courage to dare to do right than to fear to do wrong.

I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man. All the good from The Savior of the world is communicated to us through this Book.

Nothing in this world is impossible to a willing heart.

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.

History is not history unless it is the truth.

We seek not to overthrow the constitution, but to overthrow those who would prevert it.

If you have never failed you have never lived.

I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how a man could look up into the heavens and say there is no God.

Believing everybody is dangerous, but believing nobody is more dangerous.

When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion.

The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.

Faith is not believing that God can, but that God will.

There is no greater injustice than to wring your profits from the sweat of another man's brow.

You cannot have the right to do what is wrong!

Character is the tree, reputation is the shadow.

Any society that takes away from those most capable and gives to the least will perish.

I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.

Teach the children so it will not be necessary to teach the adults.

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.

I do not think I could myself, be brought to support a man for office, whom I knew to be an open enemy of, and scoffer at, religion.