Abraham Lincoln Quotes

We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.

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

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

I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country... corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.

The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.

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.

The most reliable way to predict the future is to create it.

In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.

You must remember that some things legally right are not morally right.

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.

It is a sin to be silent when it is your duty to protest.

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 should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty – to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.

If you trust, you will be disappointed occasionally, but if you mistrust, you will be miserable all the time.

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.

You cannot fail unless you quit.

You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry

We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.

The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend.

You can please some of the people some of the time, all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can never please all of the people all of the time.

Commitment is what transforms a promise into reality.

I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man. All the good from The Savior of the world is communicated to us through this Book.

Our republican system was meant for a homogeneous people. As long as blacks continue to live with the whites they constitute a threat to the national life. Family life may also collapse and the increase of mixed breed bastards may some day challenge the supremacy of the white man.

Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.

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

You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence. You cannot help people permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.

To stand in silence when they should be protesting makes cowards of men.

I would rather be a little nobody, then to be a evil somebody.

I will say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races: that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people.

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.

Nothing is stronger than gentleness.

A statesman is he who thinks in the future generations, and a politician is he who thinks in the upcoming elections.

Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought

Be with a leader when he is right, stay with him when he is still right, but, leave him when he is wrong.

Nations do not die from invasion; they die from internal rottenness.

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

A day spent helping no one but yourself is a day wasted.

You can have anything you want if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose.

Prohibition... goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes... A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.

Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.

Discipline is choosing between what you want now, and what you want most.

You can have anything you want, if you want it badly enough.

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

Behind the cloud the sun is still shining.

When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion.

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

If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would do that. I have here stated my purpose according to my official duty, and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men, everywhere, could be free.

Two of my favorite things are sitting on my front porch smoking a pipe of sweet hemp, and playing my Hohner harmonica.

I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have.

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