Quotes by Lincoln, Abraham

"A house divided against itself cannot stand -- I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free."

Lincoln, Abraham on unity   

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

Lincoln, Abraham on vice
5 fans of this quote   

"Beware of rashness, but with energy, and sleepless vigilance, go forward and give us victories."

Lincoln, Abraham on victory   

"The ballot is stronger than the bullet."

Lincoln, Abraham on voting
6 fans of this quote   

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

Lincoln, Abraham on voting   

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

Lincoln, Abraham on vow   

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

Lincoln, Abraham on wealth   

"Will springs from the two elements of moral sense and self-interest."

Lincoln, Abraham on power
3 fans of this quote   

"My father taught me to work, but he did not teach me to love it."

Lincoln, Abraham on work
3 fans of this quote   

"Wanting to work is so rare a merit that it should be encouraged."

Lincoln, Abraham on work
6 fans of this quote   

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

Lincoln, Abraham on work
7 fans of this quote   

"Do not worry; eat three square meals a day; say your prayers; be courteous to your creditors; keep your digestion good; exercise; go slow and easy. Maybe there are other things your special case requires to make you happy, but my friend, these I reckon will give you a good lift. -"

Lincoln, Abraham on worry
3 fans of this quote   

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

Lincoln, Abraham on worry
5 fans of this quote   

"I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow."

Lincoln, Abraham on action   

"As our case is new, we must think and act anew."

Lincoln, Abraham on action   

"I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for the day."

Lincoln, Abraham on choice
4 fans of this quote   

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

Lincoln, Abraham on common sense
3 fans of this quote   

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

Lincoln, Abraham on commonplace   

"He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I ever met."

Lincoln, Abraham on communication   

"Everybody likes a compliment."

Lincoln, Abraham on compliments
4 fans of this quote   

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

Lincoln, Abraham on confidence   

"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."

Lincoln, Abraham on conflict   

"What is conservatism? It is not adherence to the old and tried, but against the new and untried?"

Lincoln, Abraham on conservatives
3 fans of this quote   

"Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes crimes out of things that are not crimes."

Lincoln, Abraham on control
3 fans of this quote   

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

Lincoln, Abraham on control
3 fans of this quote   

"What I do say is that no man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent."

Lincoln, Abraham on control   

"He reminds me of the man who murdered both his parents, and then when the sentence was about to be pronounced, pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was orphan."

Lincoln, Abraham on crime and criminals
4 fans of this quote   

"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, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong it's reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."

Lincoln, Abraham on crisis
3 fans of this quote   

"If I care to listen to every criticism, let alone act on them, then this shop may as well be closed for all other businesses. I have learned to do my best, and if the end result is good then I do not care for any criticism, but if the end result is not good, then even the praise of ten angels would not make the difference."

Lincoln, Abraham on criticism   

"If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, then ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference."

Lincoln, Abraham on criticism   

"I destroy my enemy when I make him my friend."

Lincoln, Abraham on anger
3 fans of this quote   

"Die when I may, I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow."

Lincoln, Abraham on death   

"What has once happened, will invariably happen again, when the same circumstances which combined to produce it, shall again combine in the same way. "

Lincoln, Abraham on uncategorised   

"We meet this evening, not in sorrow, but in gladness of heart. "

Lincoln, Abraham on uncategorised   

"I think very much of the people, as an old friend said he thought of woman. He said when he lost his first wife, who had been a great help to him in his business, he thought he was ruinedthat he could never find another to fill her place. At length, however, he married another, who he found did quite as well as the first, and that his opinion now was that any woman would do well who was well done by. So I think of the whole people of this nationthey will ever do well if well done by. We will try to do well by them in all parts of the country, North and South, with entire confidence that all will be well with all of us. "

Lincoln, Abraham on uncategorised   

"The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselvesin their separate, and individual capacities. In all that the people can individually do as well for themselves, government ought not to interfere. The desirable things which the individuals of a people can not do, or can not well do, for themselves, fall into two classes: those which have relation to wrongs, and those which have not. Each of these branch off into an infinite variety of subdivisions. The firstthat in relation to wrongsembraces all crimes, misdemeanors, and nonperformance of contracts. The other embraces all which, in its nature, and without wrong, requires combined action, as public roads and highways, public schools, charities, pauperism, orphanage, estates of the deceased, and the machinery of government itself. From this it appears that if all men were just, there still would be some, though not so much, need for government. "

Lincoln, Abraham on uncategorised   

"Has it [popular sovereignty] not got down as thin as the homeopathic soup that was made by boiling the shadow of a pigeon that had starved to death?"

Lincoln, Abraham on uncategorised   

"Must a government, of necessity, be too strong for the liberties of its own people, or too weak to maintain its own existence?"

Lincoln, Abraham on uncategorised
3 fans of this quote   

"There is an important sense in which government is distinctive from administration. One is perpetual, the other is temporary and changeable. A man may be loyal to his government and yet oppose the particular principles and methods of administration. "

Lincoln, Abraham on uncategorised   

"While the people retain their virtue, and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government, in the short space of four years. "

Lincoln, Abraham on uncategorised