Abraham Lincoln’s powerful quotes on life, democracy, leadership and freedom are a true inspiration for the people of world.
Reading meaningful quotes from influential people help us to live a purposeful life. Lincoln was one of the greatest American President who was a strong believer of humanity, integrity, patience and hard work. He fought for the equality in US, served as 16th president of United States for a period of four years and worked for a democracy that was “of the people, by the people, for the people.” He is remembered for keeping country together during the difficult period of civil war in American history.
It impacts us a lot when we read the inspirational sayings of a person who had faced so much difficulties in his personal life but contributed a lot for the society. Below are Abraham Lincoln’s inspiring quotes on life, democracy, leadership and freedom.
Abraham Lincoln Quotes:
- “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.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “And in the end it is not the years in your life that count, it’s the life in your years.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “Every man’s happiness is his own responsibility.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “If I am killed, I can die but once; but to live in constant dread of it, is to die over and over again.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “I would rather be a little nobody, then to be an evil somebody.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “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.” : 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
- “Most folks are about as happy as they make their minds up to be.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free : honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “You think slavery is right and should be extended; while we think slavery is wrong and ought to be restricted. That I suppose is the rub. It certainly is the only substantial difference between us.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “The one victory we can ever call complete will be that one which proclaims that there is not one slave or one drunkard on the face of God’s green earth.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “All I ask for the negro is that if you do not like him, let him alone. If God gave him but little, that little let him enjoy.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “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
- “Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope it will come soon, and come to stay; and so come as to be worth the keeping in all future time.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free — honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best, hope of earth.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “Four score 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.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “I will prepare and someday my chance will come.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “I do the very best I know how–the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “Towering genius distains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “If we have no friends, we have no pleasure; and if we have them, we are sure to lose them, and be doubly pained by the loss.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “I distrust the wisdom if not the sincerity of friends who would hold my hands while my enemies stab me.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “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 Lincoln
- “In very truth he was, the noblest work of God: an honest man.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “In law it is a good policy to never plead what you need not, lest you oblige yourself to prove what you can not.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “And having thus chosen our course, without guile, and with pure purpose, let us renew our trust in God, and go forward without fear, and with manly hearts.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “Human nature will not change. In any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as good.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “What is to be, will be, and no prayers of ours can arrest the decree.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “I know not how to aid you, save in the assurance of one of mature age, and much severe experience, that you can not fail, if you resolutely determine, that you will not.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “Whatever you are, be a good one.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “Those who look for the bad in people will surely find it.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done today.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “Adhere to your purpose and you will soon feel as well as you ever did. On the contrary, if you falter, and give up, you will lose the power of keeping any resolution, and will regret it all your life.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “Tact: the ability to describe others as they see themselves.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “A farce or comedy is best played; a tragedy is best read at home.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people can be engaged in.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “For people who like that kind of a book that is the kind of book they will like.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “The love of property and consciousness of right and wrong have conflicting places in our organization, which often makes a man’s course seem crooked, his conduct a riddle.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried?” : Abraham Lincoln
- “Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “Human action can be modified to some extent, but human nature cannot be changed.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “Love is the chain to lock a child to its parent.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “There are no bad pictures; that’s just how your face looks sometimes.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “I am rather inclined to silence, and whether that be wise or not, it is at least more unusual nowadays to find a man who can hold his tongue than to find one who cannot.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “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.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to success is more important than any other thing.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “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 Lincoln
- “I have a congenital aversion to failure.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “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.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “The greatest fine art of the future will be the making of a comfortable living from a small piece of land.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “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 Lincoln
- “The demon of intemperance ever seems to have delighted in sucking the blood of genius and of generosity.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “The ballot is stronger than the bullet.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “I cannot make it better known than it already is that I strongly favor colonization.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “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.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “I care not for a man’s religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “The United States government must not undertake to run the Churches. When an individual, in the Church or out of it, becomes dangerous to the public interest he must be checked.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “If you are resolutely determined to make a lawyer of yourself, the thing is more than half done already.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “The greatest fine art of the future will be the making of a comfortable living from a small piece of land.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “I can make a General in five minutes but a good horse is hard to replace.” : Abraham Lincoln
- “My father taught me to work, but not to love it. I never did like to work, and I don’t deny it. I’d rather read, tell stories, crack jokes, talk, laugh: anything but work.” : Abraham Lincoln