Abraham Lincoln
If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business.Collection: Business
It would astonish if not amuse the older citizens to learn that I (a strange, friendless, uneducated, penniless boy, working at ten dollars per month) have been put down as the candidate of pride, wealth, and aristocratic family distinction.Collection: Family
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.Collection: Religion
Extemporaneous speaking should be practiced and cultivated. It is the lawyer's avenue to the public. However able and faithful he may be in other respects, people are slow to bring him business if he cannot make a speech.Collection: Business
That our government should have been maintained in its original form from its establishment until now is not much to be wondered at. It had many props to support it through that period, which now are decayed and crumbled away. Through that period, it was felt by all to be an undecided experiment; now, it is understood to be a successful one.Collection: Government
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.Collection: Men
If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.Collection: Respect
The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.Collection: History
I have great respect for the semicolon; it is a mighty handy little fellow.Collection: Respect
When you have got an elephant by the hind legs and he is trying to run away, it's best to let him run.Collection: Best
I should like to know if, taking this old Declaration of Independence, which declares that all men are equal upon principle, you begin making exceptions to it, where will you stop? If one man says it does not mean a Negro, why not another say it does not mean some other man?Collection: Independence
My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.Collection: Great
Important principles may, and must, be inflexible.Collection: Brainy
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.Collection: Freedom
My father... removed from Kentucky to... Indiana, in my eighth year... It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up... Of course when I came of age, I did not know much. Still somehow, I could read, write, and cipher... but that was all.Collection: Age
The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.Collection: Government
Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built.Collection: Work
The ballot is stronger than the bullet.Collection: Politics
I can make more generals, but horses cost money.Collection: Money
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.Collection: Equality
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.Collection: Men
The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.Collection: Time
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.Collection: Government
'A living dog is better than a dead lion.' Judge Douglas, if not a dead lion for this work, is at least a caged and toothless one. How can he oppose the advances of slavery? He don't care anything about it.Collection: Work
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.Collection: Truth
I believe it is universally understood and acknowledged that all men will ever act correctly, unless they have a motive to do otherwise.Collection: Men
I will prepare and some day my chance will come.Collection: Chance
These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert to fleece the people; and now that they have got into a quarrel with themselves, we are called upon to appropriate the people's money to settle the quarrel.Collection: Money
To the best of my judgment, I have labored for, and not against, the Union. As I have not felt, so I have not expressed any harsh sentiment towards our Southern brethren. I have constantly declared, as I really believed, the only difference between them and us is the difference of circumstances.Collection: Best
Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?Collection: Friendship
That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.Collection: Great
Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say, for one, that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow-men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition is yet to be developed.Collection: Great
Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.Collection: Best
Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it.Collection: God
Concede that the new government of Louisiana is only to what it should be, as the egg is to the fowl; we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it.Collection: Government
When I do good I feel good, when I do bad I feel bad, and that's my religion.Collection: Good
When I am getting ready to reason with a man, I spend one-third of my time thinking about myself and what I am going to say and two-thirds about him and what he is going to say.Collection: Time
That I am not a member of any Christian church is true; but I have never denied the truth of the Scriptures, and I have never spoken with intentional disrespect of religion in general, or of any denomination of Christians in particular.Collection: Religion
I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.Collection: Best
The people will save their government, if the government itself will allow them.Collection: Government
I go for all sharing the privileges of the government, who assist in bearing its burdens. Consequently, I go for admitting all whites to the right of suffrage, who pay taxes or bear arms (by no means excluding females).Collection: Government
No man is good enough to govern another man without the other's consent.Collection: Good
Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.Collection: Funny
I am humble Abraham Lincoln. I have been solicited by my friends to become a candidate for the Legislature. My politics are short and sweet, like the old woman's dance.Collection: Politics
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.Collection: God
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 some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.Collection: Alone
I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.Collection: Best
The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the angels of our nature.Collection: Nature
Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.Collection: Strength