100+ Abraham Lincoln Quotes To Turn Your Life Full Of Motivation And Positivity

Abraham Lincoln, byname Honest Abe, the Rail-Splitter, or the Great Emancipator, (born February 12, 1809, near Hodgenville, Kentucky, U.S.—died April 15, 1865, Washington, D.C.), 16th president of the United States (1861–65), who preserved the Union during the American Civil War and brought about the emancipation of the slaves.

Among American heroes, Lincoln continues to have a unique appeal for his fellow countrymen and also for people of other lands. This charm derives from his remarkable life story—the rise from humble origins, the dramatic death—and from his distinctively human and humane personality as well as from his historical role as saviour of the Union and emancipator of the slaves. His relevance endures and grows especially because of his eloquence as a spokesman for democracy. In his view, the Union was worth saving not only for its own sake but because it embodied an ideal, the ideal of self-government. In recent years, the political side to Lincoln’s character, and his racial views in particular, have come under close scrutiny, as scholars continue to find him a rich subject for research. The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., was dedicated to him on May 30, 1922.

Here we collected some the most wise quotes of Lincoln which keeps on inspiring us still now.

All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.

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

Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.

Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.

Don’t worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.

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.

Whatever you are, be a good one.

Marriage is neither heaven nor hell, it is simply purgatory.

A house divided against itself cannot stand.

Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?

It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.

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

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.

I am rather inclined to silence.

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.

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.

I will prepare and some day my chance will come.

True patriotism is better than the wrong kind of piety.

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

Everybody likes a compliment.

The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.

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

I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.

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

When you have got an elephant by the hind legs and he is trying to run away, it’s best to let him run.

A friend is one who has the same enemies as you have.

If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?

Avoid popularity if you would have peace.

He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.

I learned a great many years ago that in a fight between husband and wife, a third party should never get between the woman’s skillet and the man’s ax-helve.

In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all; and to the young, it comes with bitterest agony because it takes them unawares. I have had experience enough to know what I say.

The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.I believe this government cannot endure permanently, half slave and half free.

It is a quality of revolutions not to go by old lines or old laws, but to break up both and make new ones.

If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.

No man is good enough to govern another man without the other’s consent.

We can succeed only by concert. It is not, ‘Can any of us imagine better,’ but, ‘Can we all do better?’

A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me.

Knavery and flattery are blood relations.

I can make more generals, but horses cost money.

Important principles may, and must, be inflexible.

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.

Gold is good in its place; but loving, brave, patriotic men are better than gold.

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it.

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

Never regret what you don’t write.

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

Don’t swap horses in crossing a stream.

I care not much for a man’s religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.

I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end… I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me.

We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that 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.

I have great respect for the semicolon; it is a mighty handy little fellow.

In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong.

The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of liberty.

Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets.

If you think you can slander a woman into loving you, or a man into voting for you, try it till you are satisfied.

With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die.

When I am getting ready to reason with a man, I spend one-third of my time thinking about myself and what I am going to say and two-thirds about him and what he is going to say.

Lets have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.

I have talked with great men, and I do not see how they differ from others.

Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.

The people themselves, and not their servants, can safely reverse their own deliberate decisions.

No policy that does not rest upon some philosophical public opinion can be permanently maintained.

If I like a thing, it just sticks after once reading it or hearing it.

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.

With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.

Republicans are for both the man and the dollar, but in case of conflict the man before the dollar.

Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new at all.

Some day I shall be President.

To give victory to the right, not bloody bullets, but peaceful ballots only, are necessary.

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

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.

When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees.

I never went to school more than six months in my life, but I can say this: that among my earliest recollections, I remember how, when a mere child, I used to get irritated when anybody talked to me in a way I could not understand.

If there is anything that a man can do well, I say let him do it. Give him a chance.

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

The point – the power to hurt – of all figures lies in the truthfulness of their application.

The highest art is always the most religious, and the greatest artist is always a devout person.

There is another old poet whose name I do not now remember who said, ‘Truth is the daughter of Time.’

It is a great piece of folly to attempt to make anything out of my early life.

It has so happened in all ages of the world that some have labored, and others have, without labor, enjoyed a large proportion of the fruits.

Nothing new here, except my marrying, which to me is a matter of profound wonder.

Every one desires to live long, but no one would be old.

If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.

Hold on with a bulldog grip, and chew and choke as much as possible.

Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.

Stand with anybody that stands right, stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong.

The people know their rights, and they are never slow to assert and maintain them when they are invaded.

I believe it is universally understood and acknowledged that all men will ever act correctly, unless they have a motive to do otherwise.

Some single mind must be master, else there will be no agreement in anything.

He who molds the public sentiment… makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to make.

I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.

You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.

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

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

When I do good I feel good, when I do bad I feel bad, and that’s my religion.

I do the very best I know how – the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.

No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.

Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.

The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.

The people will save their government, if the government itself will allow them.

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