Abraham Lincoln

Some day I shall be President.

I have always been an old-line Henry Clay Whig.

Knavery and flattery are blood relations.

Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this.

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

If a man had more than one life, I think a little hanging would not hurt this one; but after he is once dead, we cannot bring him back, no matter how sorry we may be; so the boy shall be pardoned.

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.

Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored.

My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families - second families, perhaps I should say.

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

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.

I understand a ship to be made for the carrying and preservation of the cargo, and so long as the ship can be saved, with the cargo, it should never be abandoned. This Union likewise should never be abandoned unless it fails and the possibility of its preservation shall cease to exist, without throwing passengers and cargo overboard.

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?

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

I hope to stand firm enough to not go backward, and yet not go forward fast enough to wreck the country's cause.

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.

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

Let reverence for the laws be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap - let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in primers, spelling books, and in almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice.

You may think it was a very little thing, and in these days it seems to me like a trifle, but it was a most important incident in my life. I could scarcely credit that I, the poor boy, had earned a dollar in less than a day; that by honest work, I had earned a dollar. I was a more hopeful and thoughtful boy from that time.

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

Illinois surpasses every other spot of equal extent upon the face of the globe in fertility of soil and in the proportionable amount of the same which is sufficiently level for actual cultivation.

It would astonish if not amuse the older citizens to learn that I (a strange, friendless, uneducated, penniless boy, working at ten dollars per month) have been put down as the candidate of pride, wealth, and aristocratic family distinction.

I pass my life in preventing the storm from blowing down the tent, and I drive in the pegs as fast as they are pulled up.

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

If ever I feel the soul within me elevate and expand to those dimensions not wholly unworthy of its Almighty Architect, it is when I contemplate the cause of my country, deserted by all the world beside, and I standing up boldly and lone and hurling defiance at her victorious oppressors.

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

Public sentiment is everything. 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.

As our case is new, we must think and act anew.

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

Our Declaration of Independence was held sacred by all and thought to include all; but now, to aid in making the bondage of the Negro universal and eternal, it is assailed, sneered at, construed, hawked at, and torn, till, if its framers could rise from their graves, they could not at all recognize it.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

We think the Dred Scott decision is erroneous. We know the court that made it has often overruled its own decisions, and we shall do what we can to have it overrule this.

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

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

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

When the white man governs himself, that is self-government; but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self-government - that is despotism.

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

For my part, I desire to see the time when education - and by its means, morality, sobriety, enterprise and industry - shall become much more general than at present, and should be gratified to have it in my power to contribute something to the advancement of any measure which might have a tendency to accelerate the happy period.

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

Being elected to Congress, though I am very grateful to our friends for having done it, has not pleased me as much as I expected.

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.