Quotations from Abraham Lincoln


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

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

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.

Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets.

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

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

Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.

Don't worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.

Every one desires to live long, but no one would be old.

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

God must love the common man, he made so many of them.

He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.

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.

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.

I can make more generals, but horses cost money.

I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.

I don't like that man. I must get to know him better.

I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.

If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?

If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.

Important principles may, and must, be inflexible.

In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong.

It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.

It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt.

Marriage is neither heaven nor hell, it is simply purgatory.

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

My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.

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

No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.

Republicans are for both the man and the dollar, but in case of conflict the man before the dollar.

Stand with anybody that stands right, stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong.

Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.

That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.

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.

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

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

The people will save their government, if the government itself will allow them.

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.

The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read.

The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.

The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself in every way he can, never suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him.

There is nothing true anywhere, The true is nowhere to be seen; If you say you see the true, This seeing is not the true one.

These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people.

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

To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.