Abraham Lincoln

Dont interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.

Upon the subjects of which I have treated, I have spoken as I have thought. I may be wrong in regard to any or all of them; but, holding it a sound maxim that it is better only sometimes to be right than at all times to be wrong, so soon as I discover my opinions to be erroneous, I shall be ready to renounce them.

A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me.

Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.

Among the friends of Union, there is great diversity of sentiment and of policy in regard to slavery and the African race among us.

Writing, the art of communicating thoughts to the mind through the eye, is the great invention of the world enabling us to converse with the dead, the absent, and the unborn, at all distances of time and space.

It is with your aid, as the people, that I think we shall be able to preserve - not the country, for the country will preserve itself, but the institutions of the country - those institutions which have made us free, intelligent and happy - the most free, the most intelligent, and the happiest people on the globe.

Upon the subject of education. I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people may be engaged in.

Repeal the Missouri Compromise - repeal all compromises - repeal the Declaration of Independence - repeal all past history, you still cannot repeal human nature. It will be the abundance of man's heart that slavery extension is wrong; and out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth will continue to speak.

I'm a slow walker, but I never walk back.

The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly.

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.

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.

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

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

If you think you can slander a woman into loving you, or a man into voting for you, try it till you are satisfied.

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

We find ourselves under the government of a system of political institutions, conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty, than any of which the history of former times tells us.

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

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

I hope to stand firm enough to not go backward, and yet not go forward fast enough to wreck the country's cause.

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

If you wish to win a man over to your ideas first make him your friend.

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

Ability may get you to the top but it's character that will keep you there.

We hope all danger may be overcome but to conclude that no danger may ever arise would itself be extremely dangerous.

Love is the chain whereby to bind a child to its parents

A house divided against itself cannot stand.

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

If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six hours sharpening my ax.

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

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

If the great American people will only keep their temper, on both sides of the line, the troubles will come to an end, and the question which now distracts the country will be settled just as surely as all other difficulties of like character which have originated in this government have been adjusted.

I hold that while man exists, it is his duty to improve not only his own condition, but to assist in ameliorating mankind.

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.

It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in that Declaration of Independence.

Let the people on both sides keep their self-possession, and just as other clouds have cleared away in due time, so will this, and this great nation shall continue to prosper as before.

Free labor has the inspiration of hope; pure slavery has no hope.

These men ask for just the same thing, fairness, and fairness only. This, so far as in my power, they, and all others, shall have.

Every blade of grass is a study and to produce two where there was but one is both a profit and a pleasure.

And in the end it is not the years in your life that count Its the life in your years.

Important principles may and must be inflexible.

In the end its not the years in your life that count. Its the life in your years.

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

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.

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

Important principles may, and must, be inflexible.

It is a quality of revolutions not to go by old lines or old laws, but to break up both and make new ones.

Destroy your enemy by making him your friend.

Public opinion in this country is everything.

I never went to school more than six months in my life, but I can say this: that among my earliest recollections, I remember how, when a mere child, I used to get irritated when anybody talked to me in a way I could not understand.

We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.

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

Let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you and in the end you are sure to succeed.

Everybody likes a compliment.

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

Nearly all men can stand adversity but if you want to test a mans character give him power.

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

I have talked with great men, and I do not see how they differ from others.

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

Whatever you are, be a good one.

It is difficult to make a man miserable while he feels worthy of himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him.

In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free - honorable alike in that we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.

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.

A private soldier has as much right to justice as a major-general.

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

Let reverence for the laws be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap - let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in primers, spelling books, and in almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice.

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.

When you have got an elephant by the hind legs and he is trying to run away, it's best to let him run.

How many legs does a dog have if you call his tail a leg? Four. Saying that a tail is a leg doesn't make it a leg.

There is another old poet whose name I do not now remember who said, 'Truth is the daughter of Time.'

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

To this place and the kindness of these people I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century and I have passed from a young to an old man.

As we keep or break the Sabbath Day we nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope by which man rises.

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

Whether slavery shall go into Nebraska, or other new territories, is not a matter of exclusive concern to the people who may go there. The whole nation is interested that the best use shall be made of these territories. We want them for the homes of free white people.

Never regret what you don't write.

I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.

If I like a thing, it just sticks after once reading it or hearing it.

I was born and have ever remained in the most humble walks of life.

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

Hypocrite the man who murdered both his parents... pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan.

We cannot escape history.

When you have got an Elephant by the hind leg and he is trying to run away its best to let him run.

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 blood shed unless it be forced upon the government. The government will not use force unless force is used against it.

Surely God would not have created such a being as man, with an ability to grasp the infinite, to exist only for a day! No, no, man was made for immortality.

The people know their rights, and they are never slow to assert and maintain them when they are invaded.

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

I regard no man as poor who has a godly mother. Happy Birthday Mom.

We must not promise what we ought not lest we be called on to perform what we cannot.

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

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

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

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

It is rather for us here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.

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

We must not promise what we ought not, lest we be called on to perform what we cannot.

Let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you, and in the end you are sure to succeed.

No man is good enough to govern another man without that others consent.

A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.