As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.
You may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all the time.
First cited in Alexander K. McClure, “Abe” Lincoln’s Yarns and Stories, (1904), in the above form.
Traditionally attributed to a speech in Clinton, Ill. (2 Sep 1858), but not found in any surviving Lincoln documents.
Also attributed to P.T. Barnum and Bob Dylan.
I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.
No early authority has been found citing this from Lincoln. However, in The Sociable Story-teller (1846), Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor 1410-1437, was quoted : "Do I not most effectually destroy my enemies, in making them my friends?"
All through life be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.
Quoted in William M Thayer, The Pioneer Boy (1882).
The best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time.
It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.
Quoted in F B Carpenter, The Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln (1867); Lincoln repeated this as told to him by a fellow-passenger in a stagecoach.
If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six sharpening my axe.
Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.
I don't know who my grandfather was; I'm much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.
No man has a good enough memory to make a successful liar.
I care not for a man's religion whose dog or cat are not the better for it.
You cannot escape the responsibility tomorrow by evading it today.
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.
Most of us are just about as happy as we make up our minds to be.
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.
My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.
Gentlemen, why don't you laugh? With the fearful strain that is upon me night and day, if I did not laugh, I should die.
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?
When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion.
In times like the present, men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be responsible through time and eternity.
I have simply tried to do what seemed best each day, as each day came.
When I am getting ready to persuade a man, I spend one third of the time thinking about myself what I'm going to say and two thirds of the time thinking about him and what he is going to say.
He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met.
Quoted in Frederick Trevor Hill, Lincoln the Lawyer, ch. 19 (1906). Hill adds, "History has considerately sheltered the identity of the victim."
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.
People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like.
Quoted in G.W.E. Russell, Collections and Recollections, ch. 30 (1898), regarding “an unreadably sentimental book.”
According to Anthony Gross, Lincoln’s Own Stories (1902), Lincoln’s was speaking to Robert Dale Owen, who had insisted on reading to Lincoln a long manuscript on spiritualism. "Well, for those who like that sort of thing, I should think it is just about the sort of thing they would like."
I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right; but, it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I, and this nation, should be on the Lord's side.
Reply to a clergyman who saidhe hoped “the Lord was on our side.”
Recorded in Francis B. Carpenter, Six Months at the White House with Abraham Lincoln, p. 282 (1867).
I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.
Frequently quoted, but does not appear in record of Lincoln's writings or in any first person account. http://abrahamlincolnassociation.org/Newsletters/1-2.pdf
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan — to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.
It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: “And this, too, shall pass away.” How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! — how consoling in the depth of affliction!
The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.
I do the very best I know how — the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won’t amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.
Francis Carpenter, Six Months at the White House (1867)
A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations ... is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it does of necessity fly to anarchy or to despotism.
By the frame of the Government under which we live this same people have wisely given their public servants but little power for mischief, and have with equal wisdom provided for the return of that little to their own hands at very short intervals. While the people retain their virtue and vigilance no Administration by any extreme of wickedness or folly can very seriously injure the Government in the short space of four years.
Full text
As a nation we began by declaring that "all men are created equal." We now practically read it "all men are created equal, except Negroes." When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal, except Negroes and foreigners and Catholics." When it comes to this, I shall prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty -- to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.
I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me.
This is a world of compensation; and 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.
Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.
Die when I may, I want it said of me by those who knew me best that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.
In Melancthon Woolsey Stryker's Hamilton, Lincoln & Other Addresses (1896).
Also in John Y. Simon, Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant (1975), pp. 141-142.
The true rule, in determining to embrace, or reject any thing, is not whether it have any evil in it; but whether it have more of evil, than of good. There are few things wholly evil, or wholly good. Almost every thing, especially of governmental policy, is an inseparable compound of the two; so that our best judgment of the preponderance between them is continually demanded.
I am approached with the most opposite opinions and advice, and that by religious men, who are equally certain that they represent the Divine will. I am sure that either the one or the other class is mistaken in the belief, and perhaps in some respects both. I hope it will not be irreverent for me to say that if it is probable that God would reveal his will to others, on a point so connected with my duty, it might be supposed he would reveal it directly to me; for, unless I am more deceived in myself than I often am, it is my earnest desire to know the will of Providence in this matter. And if I can learn what it is I will do it! These are not, however, the days of miracles, and I suppose it will be granted that I am not to expect a direct revelation. I must study the plain physical facts of the case, ascertain what is possible and learn what appears to be wise and right. The subject is difficult, and good men do not agree.
That some should be rich, shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprize. 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 when built.
What I do say is that 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. [...] According to our ancient faith, the just powers of governments are derived from the consent of the governed. Now the relation of master and slave is pro tanto a total violation of this principle. The master not only governs the slave without his consent, but he governs him by a set of rules altogether different from those which he prescribes for himself. Allow all the governed an equal voice in the government, and that, and that only, is self-government.
In response to Stephen Douglas. Full text.
To give the victory to the right, not bloody bullets, but peaceful ballots only, are necessary.
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.
Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.
What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling sea coasts, the guns of our war steamers, or the strength of our gallant and disciplined army. These are not our reliance against a resumption of tyranny in our fair land. All of them may be turned against our liberties, without making us stronger or weaker for the struggle. Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in our bosoms. Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, every where. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors.
I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.
Most commonly attributed to a speech in Washington (1865), but also recalled by Joseph Gillespie (author, long-time friend) regarding pardons for some deserters in the summer of 1864 (The Lincoln Memorial: Album-Immortelles, ed. O. Oldroyd, 1882)
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