Abraham Lincoln Quotes

646 Sourced Quotes

You already know I desire that neither Father or Mother shall be in want of any comfort either in health or sickness while they live.

Abraham Lincoln
Allow me to assure you, that suspicion and jealousy never did help any man in any situation.

Abraham Lincoln
I am for the people of the whole nation doing just as they please in all matters which concern the whole nation; for that of each part doing just as they choose in all matters which concern no other part; and for each individual doing just as he chooses in all matters which concern nobody else.

Abraham Lincoln
Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who deserts, while I must not touch a hair of the wily agitator who induces him to desert? I think that in such a cse to silence the agitator and save the boy is not only constitutional but withal a great mercy.

Abraham Lincoln
I wish to see, in process of disappearing, that only thing which ever could bring this nation to civil war.

Abraham Lincoln
Gen. Schurz thinks I was a little cross in my late note to you. If I was, I ask pardon. If I do get up a little temper I have no sufficient time to keep it up.

Abraham Lincoln
For it has been said, all that a man hath will he give for his life; and while all contribute of their substance the soldier puts his life at stake, and often yields it up in his country's cause. The highest merit, then is due to the soldier.

Abraham Lincoln
The unpleasant events you are passing from will not have been profitless to you.

Abraham Lincoln
If a man will stand up and assert, and repeat and re-assert, that two and two do not make four, I know nothing in the power of argument that can stop him.

Abraham Lincoln
The enthusiastic uprising of the people in our cause, is our great reliance; and we can not safely give it any check, even thoughit overflows, and runs in channels not laid down in any chart.

Abraham Lincoln
It is your business to rise up and preserve the Union and liberty, for yourselves, and not for me. I desire they shall be constitutionally preserved.

Abraham Lincoln
We should avoid planting and cultivating too many thorns in the bosom of society.

Abraham Lincoln
I certainly know that if the war fails, the administration fails, and that I will be blamed for it, whether I deserve it or not. And I ought to be blamed, if I could do better. You think I could do better; therefore you blame me already. I think I could not do better; therefore I blame you for blaming me.

Abraham Lincoln
But let the past as nothing be. For the future my view is that the fight must go on.

Abraham Lincoln
I hold that if the Almighty had ever made a set of men that should do all the eating and none of the work, he would have made them with mouths only and no hands, and if he had ever made another class that he intended should do all the work and none of the eating, he would have made them without mouths and with all hands.

Abraham Lincoln
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.

Abraham Lincoln
If all men were just, there still would be some, though not so much, need of government.

Abraham Lincoln
And I do further recommend to my fellow-citizens aforesaid, that on that occasion they do reverently humble themselves in the dust, and from thence offer up penitent and fervent prayers and supplications to the great Disposer of events for a return of the inestimable blessings of peace, union, and harmony throughout the land which it has pleased him to assign as a dwelling-place for ourselves and for our posterity throughout all generations.

Abraham Lincoln
Most governments have been based, practically, on the denial of equal rights of menours began, by affirming those rights. They said, some men are too ignorant, and vicious, to share in government. Possibly so, said we; and, by your system, you would always keep them ignorant, and vicious. We proposed to give all a chance; and we expected the weak to grow stronger, the ignorant wiser; and all better, and happier together.

Abraham Lincoln
If the negro is a man, why then my ancient faith teaches me that 'all men are created equal,' and that there can be no moral right in connection with one man's making a slave of another.

Abraham Lincoln
I believe I shall never be old enough to speak without embarrassment when I have nothing to talk about.

Abraham Lincoln
I am struggling to maintain the government, not to overthrow it. I am struggling especially to prevent others from overthrowing it.

Abraham Lincoln
May the Almighty grant that the cause of truth, justice, and humanity, shall in no wise suffer at my hands.

Abraham Lincoln
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.

Abraham Lincoln
On the whole, my impression is that mercy bears richer fruits than any other attribute.

Abraham Lincoln
Much is being said about peace; and no man desires peace more ardently than I. Still I am yet unprepared to give up the Union fora peace which, so achieved, could not be of much duration.

Abraham Lincoln
Let all Americans - let all lovers of liberty everywhere - join in the great and good work. If we do this, we shall not only have saved the Union; but we shall have so saved it, as to make, and to keep it, forever worthy of the saving.

Abraham Lincoln
Ready are we all to cry out and ascribe motives when our toes are pinched.

Abraham Lincoln
If ever I feel the soul within me elevate and expand to those dimensions, not wholly unworthy of its almighty Architect, it is when I contemplate the cause of my country, deserted by all the world beside, and I standing up boldly, alone, hurling defiance at her victorious oppressors.

Abraham Lincoln
Nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world.

Abraham Lincoln