Last Updated:Saturday, 18 February 2023

Abraham Lincoln Quotes

Childhood

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in a log cabin on Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville, Kentucky to Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks Lincoln as their second child. Lincoln was mostly self-educated. He continued as an avid reader and maintained a lifelong interest in learning. He was an active wrestler during his youth with a strong and athletic physique.

Career and Politics

Lincoln started as a partner in a general store which did not last long. Lincoln served as New Salem's postmaster and later as county surveyor along with studying law on his own. He was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1836. From 1847–1849 he was elected as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. He turned out to be a well-renowned lawyer, Whig Party leader, Illinois state legislator, and Congressman. He left Congress to resume his law practice but re-entered politics in 1854. Soon he emerged as the Republican leader. On November 6, 1860, Lincoln was elected the 16th president and was the first Republican president. His victory was possible only due to his supporters in the North and West. He is the one who led the nation throughout the American Civil War, the costliest war in the history of the U.S. He emerged as a great national leader. On foreign and military policy, he spoke against the Mexican-American war.

Family Life

On November 4, 1842, Lincoln married Mary Todd in Springfield, Illinois. Later the couple bought a house in Springfield near his law office. He was an affectionate husband and the couple had four sons. The eldest son, Robert Todd Lincoln, was born in 1843 and was his only child to live to adulthood. Edward Baker Lincoln (Eddie), born in 1846, died February 1, 1850, probably of tuberculosis. Lincoln's third son, "Willie" Lincoln was born on December 21, 1850, and died of a fever at the White House on February 20, 1862. Later, the deaths of their sons caused clinical depression in Lincoln. The youngest, Thomas "Tad" Lincoln, was born on April 4, 1853, and survived his father but died of heart failure at age 18 on July 16, 1871.

Here are few Quotes by Abraham Lincoln that will lead you in life

Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes

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 by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
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 Quotes

The ballot is stronger than the bullet. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say, for one, that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow-men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition is yet to be developed. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
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. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes

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. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
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. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
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 Quotes
A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
Never regret what you don't write. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
Republicans are for both the man and the dollar, but in case of conflict the man before the dollar. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
My father... removed from Kentucky to... Indiana, in my eighth year... It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up... Of course when I came of age, I did not know much. Still somehow, I could read, write, and cipher... but that was all. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
As our case is new, we must think and act anew. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
I don't know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
If there is anything that a man can do well, I say let him do it. Give him a chance. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
The leading rule for the lawyer, as for the man of every calling, is diligence. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
I am rather inclined to silence. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
I can make more generals, but horses cost money. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
True patriotism is better than the wrong kind of piety. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
Avoid popularity if you would have peace. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
A house divided against itself cannot stand. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
Some day I shall be President. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
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. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
I have great respect for the semicolon; it is a mighty handy little fellow. Abraham Linc -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
Repeal the Missouri Compromise - repeal all compromises - repeal the Declaration of Independence - repeal all past history, you still cannot repeal human nature. It will be the abundance of man's heart that slavery extension is wrong; and out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth will continue to speak. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
The highest art is always the most religious, and the greatest artist is always a devout person. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
There is another old poet whose name I do not now remember who said, 'Truth is the daughter of Time.' -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
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. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
No policy that does not rest upon some philosophical public opinion can be permanently maintained. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
He who molds the public sentiment... makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to make. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
We can succeed only by concert. It is not, 'Can any of us imagine better,' but, 'Can we all do better?' -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
If I like a thing, it just sticks after once reading it or hearing it. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
I should like to know if, taking this old Declaration of Independence, which declares that all men are equal upon principle, you begin making exceptions to it, where will you stop? If one man says it does not mean a Negro, why not another say it does not mean some other man? -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember when I did not so think and feel. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
Extemporaneous speaking should be practiced and cultivated. It is the lawyer's avenue to the public. However able and faithful he may be in other respects, people are slow to bring him business if he cannot make a speech. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
The legal right of the Southern people to reclaim their fugitives I have constantly admitted. The legal right of Congress to interfere with their institution in the states, I have constantly denied. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
If the people of Utah shall peacefully form a State Constitution tolerating polygamy, will the Democracy admit them into the Union? -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
Biographies, as generally written, are not only misleading but false... In most instances, they commemorate a lie and cheat posterity out of the truth. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
I am like a man so busy in letting rooms in one end of his house, that he can't stop to put out the fire that is burning the other. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
I do not think I could myself be brought to support a man for office whom I knew to be an open enemy of, and scoffer at, religion. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
I go to assume a task more difficult than that which devolved upon Washington. Unless the great God, who assisted him, shall be with me and aid me, I must fail; but if the same omniscient mind and almighty arm that directed and protected him shall guide and support me, I shall not fail - I shall succeed. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
The man who could go to Africa and rob her of her children, and then sell them into interminable bondage, with no other motive than that which is furnished by dollars and cents, is so much worse than the most depraved murderer that he can never receive pardon at my hand. -Abraham Lincoln Quotes
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 Quotes

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Assassination

On April 11, 1865, Lincoln promoted voting rights for blacks in his speech. After listening to this, John Wilkes Booth came up with a plot to assassinate the President. On the evening of April 14, Booth crept up from behind Lincoln and fired at the back of his head leaving him mortally wounded. He slipped into a coma and survived for 8 hours only. Lincoln breathed his last at 7:22 am on April 15, 1865. The caskets containing Lincoln's body were kept in white house for 10 days and then traveled for three weeks on the Lincoln Special funeral train. Later his body was buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield and now lies within the Lincoln Tomb. Finally, on 26th April 1865, Booth was shot dead when he refused to surrender.

Great leader

Abraham Lincoln is a notable personality in the history of politics and humanity. He declared Thanksgiving Day as a National Holiday. He was a man of significant accomplishments and glories and was a religious skeptic. He is one of the most valued and adored leaders of the USA. His life was a worthy and remarkable one that teaches us life lessons. Share these appealing quotes by Abraham Lincoln, a great iconic personality with your family, friends, colleagues and loved ones. Motivate yourself and others to do great things in life.

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