Quotes from Abraham Lincoln

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

To correct the evils, great and small, which spring from want of sympathy and from positive enmity among strangers, as nations or as individuals, is one of the highest functions of civilization.

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

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

That I am not a member of any Christian church is true; but I have never denied the truth of the Scriptures, and I have never spoken with intentional disrespect of religion in general, or of any denomination of Christians in particular.

Most people are as happy as they want to be.

When I lay down the reins of this administration, I want to have one friend left. And that friend is myself.

You already know I desire that neither Father or Mother shall be in want of any comfort either in health or sickness while they live.

A private soldier has as much right to justice as a major-general.

Some day I shall be President.

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

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

The fiery trials through which we pass will light us down in honour or dishonour to the latest generation.

What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.

If you don't want to use the army, I should like to borrow it for a while. Yours respectfully,

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.

Your own resolution to success is more important than any other one thing.

What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried?

... That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.

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

Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people.

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.

I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end, when I come to lay down the reins of Ewer, I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at st have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me.

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.