69 Quotes by Abraham Lincoln

Black and white picture of Abraham Lincoln. He is wearing a black, three-piece suit with a bow tie, like in all the pictures of this article. Abraham is sitting down.

“We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.”

-Abraham

(Photo: Library of Congress/Public domain)

“Nothing in this world is impossible to a willing heart.”

Abraham Lincoln

 “Having made the attempt, you MUST succeed in it. ‘Must‘ is the word.”

Abraham Lincoln

“That some achieve great success is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.”

Abraham Lincoln

“Nothing will divert me from my purpose.”

Abraham Lincoln
Black and white photo. Close-up of Abraham's face. His hair is hin and long, very angular. He has a high and broad forehead; and bushy, black eyebrows with a bit of an arch that sit immediately above his deep-set eyes. He has almond-shaped eyes; they are of a light color. His nose is long, thin, and very prominent. His mouth is broad and has a medium-sized lower lip and a thin upper lip. He has high cheekbones and since he is so thin, his cheeks seem gaunt. He has black hair and wears a bushy beard. He is probably in his fifties.

“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other thing.”

-Abraham

(Photo: Alexander Gardner/Mead Art Museum/Public domain)

“Again I say let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you, and in the end you are sure to succeed.”

Abraham Lincoln

“Every man’s happiness is his own responsibility.”

Abraham Lincoln

“Most folks are about as happy as they make their minds up to be.”

Abraham Lincoln

“I have no time to prepare a five-minute speech, but I could go and speak for an hour.”

Abraham Lincoln
A very unflattering photo of Abraham. He is wincing, one eye looks much smaller than the other and his mouth is crooked to one side.

“There are no bad pictures; that’s just how your face looks sometimes.”

-Abraham

(Photo: B. L. Rider/Public domain)

Grant was Lincoln’s best general. When Grant’s enemies told Lincoln that Grant drank a lot, Lincoln retorted: “You surprise me, gentlemen. But can you tell me where he gets his whiskey? Because, if I can only find out, I will send a barrel of this wonderful whiskey to every general in the army.”

Abraham Lincoln

“Tact: the ability to describe others as they see themselves.”

Abraham Lincoln

“I have no other so great [ambition] as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem.”

Abraham Lincoln

“I was born and have ever remained in the most humble walks of life.”

Abraham Lincoln
A black and white photo of Abraham. He is clean-shaven, and like in all the pictures, he looks serene and strong.

“My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families.”

-Abraham

(Photo: Samuel M. Fassett/Public domain)

“My father… removed from Kentucky to… Indiana, in my eighth year… It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up… Of course, when I came of age, I did not know much. Still, somehow, I could read, write, and cipher… but that was all.”

Abraham Lincoln

“I don’t know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.”

Abraham Lincoln

“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.”

Abraham Lincoln

“There may sometimes be ungenerous attempts to keep a young man down; and they will succeed, too, if he allows his mind to be diverted from its true channel to brood over the attempted injury.”

Abraham Lincoln
Photo of Abraham in his fancy suit sitting down. He is elegantly crossing his legs.

“I -a strange, friendless, uneducated, penniless boy, working at ten dollars per month- have been put down as the candidate of pride, wealth, and aristocratic family distinction.”

-Abraham

(Photo: Alexander Gardner/MET Museum/CC0)

“If my father’s son can become president of these United States, then your father’s son can become anything he wishes.”

Abraham Lincoln

“All I have learned, I learned from books.”

Abraham Lincoln

“I will study and prepare myself, and someday my chance will come.”

Abraham Lincoln

“A capacity, and taste, for reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others.”

Abraham Lincoln
Photo of Abraham standing up. He is very tall and thin. He has long arms. He is touching some books with his left hand.

“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.”

-Abraham

(Photo: Mathew Brady/Library of Congress/Public domain)

“Education… means teaching people to behave as they do not behave.”

Abraham Lincoln

“For my part, I desire to see the time when education – and by its means, morality, sobriety, enterprise and industry – shall become much more general than at present.”

Abraham Lincoln

“That some should be rich shows that others may become rich.”

Abraham Lincoln

“Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence built.”

Abraham Lincoln
Photo of Abraham. He is raising one of his bushy eyebrows and looking a bit defiantly at the photographer. From this angle, his nose seems to be very big and straight.

“You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.”

-Abraham

(Photo: Mathew Brady/Library of Congress/Public domain)

“You cannot have the right to do what is wrong!”

Abraham Lincoln

“A nation that does not honor its heroes will not long endure.”

Abraham Lincoln

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

Abraham Lincoln

“And the promise being made, must be kept.”

Abraham Lincoln
Photo of Abraham. His hair is longer in this picture and a bit way.

“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”

-Abraham

(Photo: Library of Congress/Public domain)

The Presidency… is no bed of roses… No human being can fill that station and escape censure.

Abraham Lincoln

“Avoid popularity if you would have peace.”

Abraham Lincoln

“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.”

Abraham Lincoln

“How many legs does a dog have if you call his tail a leg? Four. Saying that a tail is a leg doesn’t make it a leg.”

Abraham Lincoln
Photo of Abraham. Profile. He has a huge, straight forehead that slants backward. His eyes are deep-set, his cheekbones high. His nose is huge and almost straight. His chin protrudes forward, it is a big chin.

“I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.”

-Abraham

(Photo: Library of Congress/Public domain)


“Try to give my son the strength not to follow the crowd when everyone is getting on the bandwagon.”

Abraham Lincoln

“You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.”

Abraham Lincoln

“I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.”

Abraham Lincoln

“In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all; and to the young, it comes with bitterest agony because it takes them unawares.”

Abraham Lincoln
Photo of a sitting Abraham. He looks very calm and dignified.

“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.”

-Abraham

(Photo: Metropolitan Museum of Art/CC0)

“I am not concerned that you have fallen. I am concerned that you arise.”

Abraham Lincoln

“I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.”

Abraham Lincoln

“You can lose everything in life, but not dreams.”

Abraham Lincoln

“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.”

Abraham Lincoln
Photo of Abraham. His hair is standing up, like if he had been electrocuted.

“No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.”

-Abraham

(Photo: Library of Congress/Public domain)

“Allow me to assure you that suspicion and jealousy never did help any man in any situation.”

Abraham Lincoln

“Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this.”

Abraham Lincoln

“Once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.”

Abraham Lincoln

“Character is like a tree, and reputation like a shadow.”

Abraham Lincoln
Photo of Abraham from the side. He is clean-shaven and his nose and chin are very prominent. His hair is seriously tousled as if a strong wind had messed it up.

“Honor is better than honors.”

-Abraham

The photographer combed Abrahams’s hair,
but Abraham did not like the look and messed it up.
(Photo: Alexander Hesler/Public domain)

“So soon as I discover my opinions to be erroneous, I shall be ready to renounce them.”

Abraham Lincoln

To Grant in a letter:  “I now wish to make the personal acknowledgment that you were right, and I was wrong.

Abraham Lincoln

“The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.”

Abraham Lincoln

“If you are resolutely determined to make a lawyer of yourself, the thing is more than half done already.”

Abraham Lincoln
Photo of Abraham. Back to the tidy, well-combed hair. He is, of course, wearing his black, three-piece suit with a bow tie.

“You can not fail if you resolutely determine that you will not.”

-Abraham

(Photo: Alexander Hesler/Library of Congress/Public domain)

“Let us diligently apply the means, never doubting that a just God, in his own good time, will give us the rightful result.

Abraham Lincoln

“These days it seems to me like a trifle, but it was a most important incident in my life. I could scarcely credit that I, the poor boy, had earned a dollar in less than a day; that by honest work, I had earned a dollar. I was a more hopeful and thoughtful boy from that time.”

Abraham Lincoln

“Whatever woman may cast her lot with mine, should any ever do so, it is my intention to do all in my power to make her happy and contented; and there is nothing I can imagine that would make me more unhappy than to fail in the effort.”

Abraham Lincoln
Photo of Abraham.

“I have stepped out upon this platform that I may see you and that you may see me, and in the arrangement, I have the best of the bargain.”

-Abraham

(Photo: Christie’s/Public domain)

“I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.”

Abraham Lincoln

“I do… the very best I can, and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.”

Abraham Lincoln

“A drop of honey gathers more flies than a gallon of gall.”

Abraham Lincoln
Photo of Abraham. He is sitting. His head rests on his hand while his elbow rests on a table.

“I like to see a man live so that his place (town) will be proud of him.”

-Abraham

(Photo: Alexander Gardner/Public domain)

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2021-06-14
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