Abraham Lincoln quotes
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865): President of the United States from 1861 to 1865. The library holds 366 quotes by Abraham Lincoln, drawn from First Inaugural Address, Address, New York City, Feb, Second Annual Message to Congress, Dec and other works. The 60 below are the most quoted; search the library in the maker for the rest.
Often about: life, faith, time, freedom, power, truth
The best-known Abraham Lincoln quotes
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We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies.
First Inaugural Address -
The free institutions we enjoy have developed the powers and improved the condition of the whole people beyond any example in the world.
January 19 -
It is a difficult role, and so much the greater will be the honor if you perform it well.
February 26 -
No man resolved to make the most of himself can spare time for personal contention.
October 15 -
A jury has too frequently at least one member more ready to hang the panel than to hang the traitor.
August 18 -
Wise counsels may accelerate, or mistakes delay it, but the victory is sure to come.
September 27 -
There is no more dangerous or expensive analysis than that which consists of trying a man.
July 20 -
Rise up to the height of a generation of free men worthy of a free government.
December 1 -
The dogmas of the past are inadequate to the stormy present.
January (motto) -
Intemperance is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of all evils among mankind.
September 25 -
The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is why he made so many of them.
April 28 -
Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments.
August 2 -
The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause which we deem to be just.
April (motto) -
With firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right.
March 10 -
Something had to be done, and, as there does not appear to be any one else to do it, I did it.
February 7 -
We prefer a candidate who will allow the people to have their own way, regardless of his private opinion.
December 3 -
I shall try to correct errors, when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views, so fast as they shall appear to be true views.
April 20 -
It is better only sometimes to be right than at all times wrong.
March 20 -
Many free countries have lost their liberties and ours may lose hers; but, if she shall, be it my proudest boast, not that I was the last to desert, but that I never deserted her.
July 31 -
Few can be induced to labor exclusively for posterity, and none will do it enthusiastically.
October 19 -
If it must be that I go down, let me go down linked to truth.
June 28 -
Labor is like any other commodity in the market—increase the demand for it and you increase the price of it.
February 1 -
I esteem foreigners as no better than other people—nor any worse.
January 9 -
Versatility is an injurious possession, since it can never be greatness.
August 17 -
It is against my principles to contest a clear matter of right.
November 4 -
You must remember that some things legally right are not morally right.
October 2 -
The people will save their government, if the government itself will do its part only indifferently well.
March 8 -
Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us dare to do our duty as we understand it.
Address, New York City, Feb. 21, 1859 -
Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors of bullets.
January 23 -
Gold is good in its place; but living, brave, and patriotic men are better than gold.
August 13 -
“I have made it a rule of my life,” said the old parson, “not to cross Fox River until I get to it.”
March 13 -
The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself in every way he can, never suspecting that anybody is hindering him.
January 5 -
When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion—kind, unassuming persuasion—should ever be adopted.
September 19 -
The strife of elections is but human nature applied to the facts of the case.
November 5 -
Men should utter nothing for which they would not be willingly responsible through time and in eternity.
November 1 -
Our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
July (motto) -
If I do not go away from here a wiser man, I shall go away a better man.
May 21 -
I do not argue—I beseech you to make the argument for yourself.
April 3 -
I have said nothing but what I am willing to live by, and, if it be the pleasure of Almighty God, to die by.
April 16 -
The first necessity is of proving that popular government is not an absurdity.
September 28 -
What is the influence of fashion but the influence that other people’s actions have on our actions?
August 8 -
Money being the object, the man having money would be the victim.
July 24 -
The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise to the occasion.
March 6 -
Pleasures to be enjoyed, or pains to be endured, after we shall be dead and gone, are but little regarded.
October 22 -
I shall do my utmost that whoever is to hold the helm for the next voyage shall start with the best possible chance of saving the ship.
December 5 -
I was young once, and I am sure I was never ungenerously thrust back.
February 13 -
I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.
July 25 -
We shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it.
August 4 -
Better give your path to a dog than to be bitten by him in contesting for the right.
July 23 -
Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government and form a new one that suits them better.
June 26 -
Washington was a happy man, because he was engaged in benefiting his race.
September 18 -
This government is expressly charged with the duty of providing for the general welfare.
March 29 -
It is only by the active development of events that character and ability can be tested.
May 26 -
I am older in years than I am in the tricks and trades of politicians.
June 25 -
Nothing shall be wanting on my part, if sustained by the American people and God.
May 12 -
Suspicion and jealousy never did help any man in any situation.
October 9 -
Honest statesmanship is the employment of individual meannesses for the public good.
April 8 -
When the time comes, I shall take the ground I think is right.
April 29 -
Wanting to work is so rare a merit that it should be encouraged.
August 3 -
In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free.
October 14
Where these quotes come from
- First Inaugural Address (1 quote)
- Address, New York City, Feb (1 quote)
- Second Annual Message to Congress, Dec (1 quote)
- Speech at Gettysburg, Nov (1 quote)
- Second Inaugural Address, March (1 quote)
- Speech, June (1 quote)
Every quote comes from a public-domain edition. How the library was made .