A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved; I do not expect the house to fall; but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other.
—Abraham Lincoln
Topics: Unity
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.
—Abraham Lincoln
Topics: Thinking
I don’t think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.
—Abraham Lincoln
Topics: Growth, Learning, Self-improvement, Wisdom
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.
—Abraham Lincoln
Topics: Character, Integrity, Society, Adversity, Power
The love of property and consciousness of right and wrong have conflicting places in our organization, which often makes a man’s course seem crooked, his conduct a riddle.
—Abraham Lincoln
Topics: Property
Honor to the Soldier, and Sailor everywhere, who bravely bears his countrys cause. Honor also to the citizen who cares for his brother in the field, and serves, as he best can, the same causehonor to him, only less than to him, who braves, for the common good, the storms of heaven and the storms of battle.
—Abraham Lincoln
Were it not for my little jokes, I could not bear the burdens of this office.
—Abraham Lincoln
It is much easier to ride a horse in the direction it’s going.
—Abraham Lincoln
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.
—Abraham Lincoln
When someone asked Abraham Lincoln, after he was elected president, what he was going to do about his enemies, he replied, “I am going to destroy them. I am going to make them my friends.”
—Abraham Lincoln
Topics: Government
Must a government, of necessity, be too strong for the liberties of its own people, or too weak to maintain its own existence?
—Abraham Lincoln
To believe in the things you can see and touch is no belief at all; but to believe in the unseen is a triumph and a blessing.
—Abraham Lincoln
Topics: Vision, Belief, Sin, Believe
In a certain sense, and to a certain extent, he the president is the representative of the people. He is elected by them, as well as congress is. But can he, in the nature of things, know the wants of the people, as well as three hundred other men, coming from all the various localities of the nation? If so, where is the propriety of having a congress?
—Abraham Lincoln
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.
—Abraham Lincoln
Topics: Conviction, Democracy
The President to-night has a dream:He was in a party of plain people, and, as it became known who he was, they began to comment on his appearance. One of them said:He is a very common-looking man. The President replied:The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is the reason he makes so many of them.
—Abraham Lincoln
Quarrel not at all. No man resolved to make the most of himself can spare time for personal contention. Still less can he afford to take all the consequences, including the vitiating of his temper and loss of self control. Yield larger things to which you can show no more than equal right; and yield lesser ones, though clearly your own. Better give your path to a dog than be bitten by him in contesting for the right. Even killing the dog would not cure the bite.
—Abraham Lincoln
Topics: Quarrels, Fight, Fighting
The land, the earth God gave to man for his home…should never be the possession of any man, corporation, (or) society…any more than the air or water.
—Abraham Lincoln
Topics: Wilderness
The Lord prefers common looking people. That is why he made so many of them.
—Abraham Lincoln
Topics: Appearance
If you look for the bad in people expecting to find it, you surely will.
—Abraham Lincoln
Topics: People
If people see the Capitol going on, it is a sign we intend the Union shall go on.
—Abraham Lincoln
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 its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.
—Abraham Lincoln
As our case is new, we must think and act anew.
—Abraham Lincoln
Topics: Action
Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.
—Abraham Lincoln
Topics: Joy, Attitude, Happiness, Confidence, Feelings, Self-reliance
Those arguments that are made, that the inferior race are to be treated with as much allowance as they are capable of enjoying; that as much is to be done for them as their condition will allow. What are these arguments? They are the arguments that kings have made for enslaving the people in all ages of the world. You will find that all the arguments in favor of kingcraft were of this class; they always bestrode the necks of the people, not that they wanted to do it, but because the people were better off for being ridden. That is their argument, and this argument of the Judge is the same old serpent that says you work and I eat, you toil and I will enjoy the fruits of it. Turn in whatever way you will whether it comes from the mouth of a King, an excuse for enslaving the people of his country, or from the mouth of men of one race as a reason for enslaving the men of another race, it is all the same old serpent, and I hold if that course of argumentation that is made for the purpose of convincing the public mind that we should not care about this, should be granted, it does not stop with the negro.
—Abraham Lincoln
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.
—Abraham Lincoln
Topics: Happiness, Worry
I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal.
—Abraham Lincoln
Topics: Equality, Liberty
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.
—Abraham Lincoln
Topics: Deception/Lying, Persuasion, Fools, People, Confidence, Deception, Miscellaneous, Belief, Deceit
The best way to destroy your enemy is to make him your friend.
—Abraham Lincoln
Topics: Enemy, Enemies
When you have got an elephant by the hind legs and he is trying to run away, it’s best to let him run.
—Abraham Lincoln
Topics: Common Sense
Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.
—Abraham Lincoln
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- James A. Garfield American Head of State
- William McKinley American Head of State
- Thomas Jefferson American Head of State
- Herbert Hoover American Statesman
- Ulysses S. Grant American Head of State
- Richard Nixon American Head of State
- George W. Bush American Head of State
- John Quincy Adams American Head of State
- Calvin Coolidge American Head of State
- Andrew Jackson American Head of State
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