
The
Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln
A
friend is one who has the same enemies as you have.
A house divided
against itself cannot stand.
A woman is the
only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me.
All I am, or
can be, I owe to my angel mother.
All my life I
have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever the flower
would grow in thought and mind.
All that I am,
or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.
Allow the president
to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary
to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose
to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose - and you allow him
to make war at pleasure.
Always bear in
mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any
other.
Am I not destroying
my enemies when I make friends of them?
America will
never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
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. This is a most valuable - a most sacred right - a right, which
we hope and believe, is to liberate the world.
As I would not
be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of
democracy.
As our case is
new, we must think and act anew.
Avoid popularity
if you would have peace.
Ballots are the
rightful and peaceful successors to bullets.
Be sure you put
your feet in the right place, then stand firm.
Better to remain
silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
Books serve to
show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new at
all.
Character is
like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think
of it; the tree is the real thing.
Common looking
people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes
so many of them.
Die when I may,
I want it said by those who knew me best that I always plucked a thistle
and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.
Discourage litigation.
Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker
the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man. There will
still be business enough.
Don't interfere
with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it
is the only safeguard of our liberties.
Don't worry when
you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.
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.
Every one desires
to live long, but no one would be old.
Everybody likes
a compliment.
Fourscore and
seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new
nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that
all men are created equal.
Give me six hours
to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the
axe.
God must love
the common man, he made so many of them.
Government of
the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the
Earth.
He has a right
to criticize, who has a heart to help.
He who molds
the public sentiment... makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible
to make.
Hold on with
a bulldog grip, and chew and choke as much as possible.
How many legs
does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a
leg doesn't make it a leg.
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.
I am not bound
to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but
I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody
that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part
with him when he goes wrong.
I can make more
generals, but horses cost money.
I care not much
for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.
I desire so to
conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end... I
have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend
left, and that friend shall be down inside of me.
I do not think
much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.
I do the very
best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing
so until the end.
I don't know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know
what his grandson will be.
I don't like that man. I must get to know him better.
I have always
found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.
I hope to stand firm enough to not go backward, and yet not go forward
fast enough to wreck the country's cause.
I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to
see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.
I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and
every day.
I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They
have clung to me all my life.
I walk slowly, but I never walk backward.
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.
I was losing interest in politics, when the repeal of the Missouri
Compromise aroused me again. What I have done since then is pretty
well known.
I will prepare and some day my chance will come.
I'm a slow walker, but I never walk back.
If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six hours sharpening
my ax.
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.
If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?
If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can
never regain their respect and esteem.
If there is anything that a man can do well, I say let him do it.
Give him a chance.
If this is coffee,
please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some
coffee.
If we could first
know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better
judge what to do, and how to do it.
If you call a tail a leg, how many legs has a dog? Five? No, calling
a tail a leg don't make it a leg.
If you look for
the bad in people expecting to find it, you surely will.
Important principles may, and must, be inflexible.
In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the
will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong.
In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life
in your years.
It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few
virtues.
It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's
mouth and remove all doubt.
Knavery and flattery are blood relations.
Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the
fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first
existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher
consideration.
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.
Lets have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us,
to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.
Marriage is neither heaven nor hell, it is simply purgatory.
Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.
My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be
seen as the last best hope of earth.
My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are
content with your failure.
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's
character, give him power.
Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one
who does this.
No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.
No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent.
No matter how
much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.
Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty
as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit
and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors.
People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.
Public opinion in this country is everything.
Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can
fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.
Republicans are for both the man and the dollar, but in case of conflict
the man before the dollar.
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.
Some day I shall be President.
Some single mind must be master, else there will be no agreement in
anything.
Stand with anybody that stands right, stand with him while he is right
and part with him when he goes wrong.
Surely God would not have created such a being as man, with an ability
to grasp the infinite, to exist only for a day! No, no, man was made
for immortality.
Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.
That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve
it as well.
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.
The ballot is stronger than the bullet.
The best thing
about the future is that it comes one day at a time.
The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend.
The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly.
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.
The highest art is always the most religious, and the greatest artist
is always a devout person.
The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is why he makes so many
of them.
The people themselves, and not their servants, can safely reverse
their own deliberate decisions.
The people will
save their government, if the government itself will allow them.
The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy
of government in the next.
The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter
us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.
The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep for which the sheep thanks
the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the
same act as the destroyer of liberty. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf
are not agreed upon a definition of liberty.
The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man
who'll get me a book I ain't read.
The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep
his lips closed.
The way for a
young man to rise is to improve himself in every way he can, never
suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him.
There is another old poet whose name I do not now remember who said,
"Truth is the daughter of Time."
There is nothing true anywhere,
The true is nowhere to be seen;
If you say you see the true,
This seeing is not the true one.
These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece
the people.
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.
Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those
who hustle.
This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit
it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they
can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise
their revolutionary right to overthrow it.
Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.
To give victory to the right, not bloody bullets, but peaceful ballots
only, are necessary.
To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.
To stand in silence when they should be protesting makes cowards out
of men.
Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto
unexplored.
We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.
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.
What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.
Whatever you are, be a good one.
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.
When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my
religion.
When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting
bees.
When you have got an elephant by the hind legs and he is trying to
run away, it's best to let him run.
Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse
to see it tried on him personally.
With Malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the
right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish
the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds.
With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.
With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not
laugh I should die.
You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people
all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative
and independence.
You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could
and should do for themselves.
You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather
was.
It is the duty
of all nations, as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the
overruling power of God and to recognize the sublime truth announced
in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations
only are blessed whose God is the Lord.
I can see how it might be possible for a man to look
down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how he
could look up into the heavens and say there is no God.
See the Kids
Wings literature guide for Chasing
Lincoln's Killer
Similarities Between Lincoln and
John F. Kennedy