100+ Famous Abraham Lincoln Quotes That Inspire the World

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

"The best way to get good service is to serve others well."

"I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends."

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

"Whatever you are, be a good one."

"The ballot is stronger than the bullet."

"Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

"My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure."

"I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true."

"Leadership means taking responsibility for the problems you didn’t cause."

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

"I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me."

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

"Towering genius disdains a beaten path… seeks regions hitherto unexplored."

"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present."

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

"It's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."

"You have to do your own growing, no matter how tall your grandfather was."

"Let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you, though you are greatly tempted."

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts."

"The path was worn and slippery. My foot slipped from under me, knocking the other out of the way."

"I walk slowly, but I never walk backward."

"I am a slow walker, but I never walk back."

"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."

"Honesty is the best policy."

"No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar."

"Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can."

"Truth is generally the best vindication against slander."

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

"I don't like that man. I must get to know him better."

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

"I look for the good qualities of a man and ignore the bad ones."

"Do not be embarrassed by your mistakes. Nothing can teach you better."

"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time."

"Integrity is the light that guides our decisions when no one is watching."

"A promise made should be a promise kept."

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

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

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

"Liberty is the breath of life to nations."

"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."

"The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next."

"I have always thought that all men should be free."

"Freedom is the right of all sentient beings."

"No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent."

"We should permit no man to be our master."

"In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free."

"A house divided against itself cannot stand."

"The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next."

"I learn very little from books, but everything from experience."

"Every man is proud of what he does well; and no man is proud of what he does not do well."

"If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters."

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

"I am not afraid to die. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born."

"Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way."

"The leading rule for the lawyer, as for the person in every other calling, is diligence."

"Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new after all."

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

"The best way to predict the future is to create it."

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."

"Against logic there is no armor like ignorance."

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

"If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?"

"I laugh because I must not cry."

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

"I am not concerned that you have fallen — I am concerned that you arise."

"A jury is twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer."

"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts—for support rather than illumination."

"I don’t know who my grandfather was, I am much more concerned to know what he will be."

"When I hear someone say, 'I guess I can't do that,' my first thought is, 'Well, you haven't tried yet.'"

"Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them."

"Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm — preferably after checking for banana peels."

"I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong."

"All that harms one directly harms all indirectly."

"No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent."

"I have always thought that all men should be free."

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

"In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free."

"Justice is the constant and perpetual wish to render every man his due."

"Laws are enforced by courts, but justice is maintained by hearts."

"The legitimate object of government is to do for a community whatever they need to have done, but cannot do at all, or cannot do so well, for themselves."

"No man is above the law, and no man is below it."

"Equality means fairness, not sameness."

"We should judge people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin."

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

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

"To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first, and call whatever you hit the target."

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

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

"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time."

"It is better to be silent and thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt."

"Experience teaches that success is due to preparedness."

"The best way to predict the future is to create it."

"Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?"

"Think for yourself and let others enjoy the privilege of doing so too."

"What is true and consistent cannot be refuted."

"I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me."

"I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true."

"I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice."

"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present."

"Let us have faith that right makes might."

"I walk slowly, but I never walk backward."

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

"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis."

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right…"

"I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go."

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear."

"I am not afraid to die. I had been dead for billions of years before I was born."

"The best way to predict the future is to create it."

"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies."

"Let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds."

"It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work."

"The world is changed less by the actions of great men than by the hope they inspire."

"There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America."

"I leave you, hoping that you will always observe what I have written."

"We can succeed only by clinging to each other."

"Let us have faith that right makes might."

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

"I am a living witness that any man may succeed who will be as patient, as faithful, and as diligent as I have been."

"Hope is the pillar that holds up the world."