Quotes from Abraham Lincoln

THAT FROM THESE HONORED DEAD WE TAKE INCREASED DEVOTION TO THAT CAUSE FOR WHICH THEY GAVE THE LAST FULL MEASURE OF DEVOTION;...

I will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. It is not the Constitution as I would like to have it, but as it is, that is to be defended. The Constitution will not be preserved & defended until it is enforced & obeyed in every part of every one of the United States. It must be so respected, obeyed, enforced and defended, and let the grass grow where it may.

In the end, it's not the years in your life that counts. It's the life in your years.

My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.

The facts with which I shall deal this evening are mainly old and familiar; nor is there anything new in the general use I shall make of them. If there shall be any novelty, it will be in the mode of presenting the facts, and the inferences and observations following that presentation. (Cooper Union address, 1860)

And this, too, shall pass away.

We shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it.

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.

Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature, opposition to it in his love of justice. These principles are an eternal antagonism, and when brought into collision so fiercely as slavery extension brings them, shocks and throes and convulsions must ceaselessly follow.

You can complain because a rose has thorns, or you can rejoice Because the thorns have a rose.

When arguing with a fool, make sure the opponent isn't doing the exact same thing.

If you want to test a man's character, give him power.

The best way to predict the future is to create it.

The money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, and more selfish than bureaucracy. It denounces as public enemies, all who question its methods or throw light upon its crimes.

The best thing a man can do for his children is love their mother.

The only way to predict the future is to create it.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God.

So you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war!

I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.

If by the mere force of numbers a majority should deprive a minority of any clearly written constitutional right, it might in a moral point of view justify revolution; certainly would if such right were a vital one. But such is not our case.

I rejoice with you in the success, which has thus far attended the cause. Yet in all our rejoicings, let us neither express nor cherish any hard feelings toward any citizen who by his vote has differed with us. Let us at all times remember that all American citizens are brothers of a common country, and should dwell together in the bonds of fraternal feeling.

Two principles have stood face-to-face from the beginning of time; and they will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings.

The path was worn and slippery. My foot slipped from under me, knocking the other out of the way, but I recovered and said to myself, It's a slip and not a fall.

This is a world of compensation; and he who would be no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and, under a just God, cannot long retain it.