Abraham Lincoln Quotes

Abraham Lincoln’s mark on history is absolutely amazing. He was the leader of the northern states in the great American Civil War of 1861-1865, which is called the second American revolution, twice the president of the United States, the victim of a high-profile political assassination… And his personal biography is in itself a fascinating story.

Lincoln left behind a great legacy – America should be a free country for all of humanity. Cities, ships, streets, etc. are named after President Lincoln. Quotes from his speeches are carved on the pediment of many buildings, monuments and stone slabs on the streets of Washington and other US cities.

Today we offer you to learn more about his speeches and thoughts. We collected the best quotes from Abraham Lincoln about life, freedom, democracy, the Civil War, slavery, and leadership, which have inspired people over the years and can inspire you too.

So if you’re looking for the best motivational and persuasive sayings, you came to the right place. Check out these Abraham Lincoln quotes and save the ones you like the most.

Famous Lincoln quotes on life

Lincoln made a huge contribution to the development and subsequent modernization of the country. Thanks to him, the country successfully passed the financial, military, and moral crisis.

He was also the man who put an end to slavery. Many of his famous quotes are still relevant and life-affirming. Save and reread them at times when you need good words and a little inspiration.

• In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.
• The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.
• You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.
• When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion.
• Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.
• 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 up to what light I have.
• Life is hard but so very beautiful.
• Most folks are about as happy as they make their minds up to be.
• You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry.
• The man does not live who is more devoted to peace than I am, none who would do more to preserve it, but it may be necessary to put the foot down firmly.
• 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.

Abe Lincoln quotes about Civil War

The Civil War is a major tragedy and the largest civil break in American history. There is still a lot of controversy about it – after all, there were two completely opposite ideals. But Lincoln will forever remain in history as a man who prevented the collapse of the United States. Take a look at his best quotes about сivil war.

• The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both *may* be, and one *must* be, wrong. God cannot be *for* and *against* the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible that God’s purpose is something different from the purpose of either party – and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaption to effect His purpose.
• I hope to stand firm enough not to go backward, and yet not go forward fast enough to wreck the country’s cause.
• The ballot is stronger than the bullet.
• I would like to speak in terms of praise due to the many brave officers and soldiers who have fought in the cause of the war.
• We never should, and I am sure, never shall be niggard of gratitude and benefaction to the soldiers who have endured toil, privations and wounds, that the nation may live.
• While we are grateful to all the brave men and officers for the events of the past few days, we should, above all, be very grateful to Almighty God, who gives us victory.
• He who does something at the head of one Regiment, will eclipse him who does nothing at the head of a hundred.
• And now, beware of rashness. Beware of rashness, but with energy, and sleepless vigilance, go forward, and give us victories.
• There are but two types of men who desire war: those who haven’t the slightest intention of fighting it themselves, and those who haven’t the slightest idea what it is. … Any man who has seen the face of death knows better than to seek him out a second time.
• We are in civil war. In such cases there always is a main question; but in this case that question is a perplexing compound — Union and Slavery. It thus becomes a question not of two sides merely, but of at least four sides, even among those who are for the Union, saying nothing of those who are against it.

Best Abraham Lincoln quotes on slavery

Abraham Lincoln was a great humanist. All his life he fought for the people’s freedom, fought against the oppression and enslavement of other nations, against slavery and the slave trade. His merciless war made America a symbol of freedom for all mankind. Abraham Lincoln and his quotations symbolize the belief that all people should be free.

• I think that slavery is wrong, morally, socially and politically. I desire that it should be no further spread in these United States, and I should not object if it should gradually terminate in the whole Union.
• If as the friends of colonization hope, the present and coming generations of our countrymen shall by any means, succeed in freeing our land from the dangerous presence of slavery; and, at the same time, in restoring a captive people to their long-lost father-land, with bright prospects for the future; and this too, so gradually, that neither races nor individuals shall have suffered by the change, it will indeed be a glorious consummation.
• Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man’s nature — opposition to it is 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.
• A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half-slave and half-free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved – I do not expect the house to fall – but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.
• We think slavery a great moral wrong, and while we do not claim the right to touch it where it exists, we wish to treat it as a wrong in the territories, where our votes will reach it.
• I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember when I did not so think, and feel.
• In the first place, I insist that our fathers did not make this nation half slave and half free, or part slave and part free. I insist that they found the institution of slavery existing here. They did not make it so, but they left it so because they knew of no way to get rid of it at that time.
• You know I dislike slavery; and you fully admit the abstract wrong of it.
• You think slavery is right and ought to be extended; while we think it is wrong and ought to be restricted. That I suppose is the rub. It certainly is the only substantial difference between us.
• Now I confess myself as belonging to that class in the country who contemplate slavery as a moral, social and political evil.
• The slave-breeders and slave-traders, are a small, odious and detested class, among you; and yet in politics, they dictate the course of all of you, and are as completely your masters, as you are the master of your own negroes.
• This is a world of compensations; and he who would be no slave, must consent to have no slave.

Funny quotes by Abraham Lincoln

Quotes by Abraham Lincoln are impressive and life-asserting, but they are not without humor and optimism. Take a look at famous Lincoln’s funny quotes. These sayings will not just make you smile, but also make you take thought. And don’t forget to share your favorite fun quote with a friend.

• We shall sooner have the bird by hatching the egg than by smashing it.
• When you have got an elephant by the hind leg, and he is trying to run away, it’s best to let him run.
• Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid.
• The negative principle that no law is free law, is not much known except among lawyers.
• No matter how much cats fight, there always seems to be plenty of kittens.
• If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.
• 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.
• Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.
• Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.
• If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?
• Tell me what brand of whiskey that Grant drinks. I would like to send a barrel of it to my other generals.
• The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly.

President Lincoln quotes on democracy and freedom

Nowadays, Americans still call Lincoln the most beloved president, their national hero. He is rightly considered the successor of the “Founding Fathers” of the United States, the creators of American democracy. We have collected the wise quotes of Abraham Lincoln on democracy and freedom, which remain relevant today – check them out.

• America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
• I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all mean are created free and equal.
• America will not be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedom, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
• Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.
• Government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.
• 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.
• 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 their revolutionary right to dismember it or overthrow it.
• I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and cause me to tremble for safety of my country; corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in High Places will follow, and the Money Power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the People, until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic destroyed.
• Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties. And not to Democrats alone do I make this appeal, but to all who love these great and true principles.
• No man is good enough to govern another man, without that other’s consent. I say this is the leading principle–the sheet anchor of American republicanism.

Abraham Lincoln quotes on leadership

Abraham Lincoln was a strong leader, more precisely, one of the greatest in the history of mankind. This person really deserves to be an example to be followed by others. Check out these quotes about leadership and ambition and get inspired for new beginnings!

• Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.
• 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.
• Don’t worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.
• That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.
• I’m a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn’t have the heart to let him down.
• I happen temporarily to occupy this big White House. I am living witness that any one of your children may look to come here as my father’s child has.
• Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.
• I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.
• I walk slow but I never walk back.
• Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored.
• The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself every way he can, never suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him.