There are so many Abraham Lincoln quotes that one could think that every word he ever uttered was turned into a quote.
It is also difficult to believe that one man had so much wisdom, but Lincoln was no ordinary man. Although he came from a poor background, his exceptional character, drive, and ambition, culminated in his achieving the highest political goal possible – the presidency.
He was elected 16th President of the United States in March 1861. He enjoys the sad but unique distinction of being the first US President to be assassinated while in office. Six days after the surrender of Confederate commanding general Robert E. Lee, Lincoln was assassinated by actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth.
President Lincoln led the United States through its greatest constitutional, military, and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, abolishing slavery, strengthening the national government, and modernizing the economy.
He is consistently ranked, both by scholars and the public, as one of the greatest U.S. presidents, if not the greatest
However, his private life was not without its problems. After a series of broken engagements to other women, he eventually married Mary Todd in 1842. Their relationship had also been through an “on-again, off-again” phase.
While preparing for the marriage, his feelings of anxiety surfaced again. When asked where he was going, he replied, “To hell, I suppose.”
And with that personal view of marriage, we launch into the series of Abraham Lincoln quotes that our Life Daily team has selected:
1. Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.
2. And in the end it is not the years in your life that count, it’s the life in your years.
3. Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.
4. 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.
5. People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.
6. Those who look for the bad in people will surely find it.
7. If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?
8. Tact: the ability to describe others as they see themselves.
9. No matter how much the cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.
10. You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.
11. The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is why he made so many of them.
12. I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.
13. If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.
14. Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.
15. I have come to the conclusion never again to think of marrying, and for this reason, I can never be satisfied with anyone who would be blockhead enough to have me.
16. It’s not me who can’t keep a secret. It’s the people I tell that can’t.
17. The worst thing you can do for anyone you care about is anything that they can do on their own.
18. When I get ready to talk to people, I spend two thirds of the time thinking what they want to hear and one third thinking about what I want to say.
19. You can’t make a weak man strong by making a strong man weak.
20. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.
21. Education does not mean teaching people what they do not know. It means teaching them to behave as they do not behave.
22. Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
23. A friend is one who has the same enemies as you have.
24. With educated people, I suppose, punctuation is a matter of rule; with me it is a matter of feeling. But I must say I have a great respect for the semicolon; it’s a useful little chap.
25. If my father’s son can become President of these United States, then your father’s son can become anything he wishes.
26. If you are going to fight, don’t let them talk you into negotiating. But, if you are going to negotiate, don’t let them talk you into fighting.
27. Good things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hurried.
28. The written word may be man’s greatest invention. It allows us to
converse with the dead, the absent, and the unborn.
For our last two quotes we turn to what has been called the most famous speech in American history, the Gettysburg Address of 1863.
The words in that speech resonate even today in the American Psyche:
29. 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.
30.This nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.
Which of these Abraham Lincoln quotes is your favorite?
Or do you prefer one that we didn’t choose? You can tell us and our readers by using the comment feed just below.
