100+ Abraham Lincoln Quotes: Timeless Wisdom & Powerful Copywriting Inspiration

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

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

"I look forward to a time when this country will take a simple view of things—that integrity, honesty, and kindness are more important than wealth or position."

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

"Whatever you are, be a good one."

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

"Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done today."

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

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

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

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

"I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end, I have lost every other man's support, I shall at least have one more—the approval of my own conscience."

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

"Failure is just practice for success."

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

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

"Press on: nothing in the world can take the place of persistence."

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

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

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

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

"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."

"Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty."

"The path was plain before me. I made a solemn vow before God that I would not stop until this curse of slavery was destroyed."

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

"Liberty is the breath of life to nations."

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

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

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

"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."

"Eternally in the great chronicles of free government, the Union will be inseparable."

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

"Freedom is not given; it is earned through vigilance and sacrifice."

"A house divided against itself cannot stand."

"Let us not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection."

"The ballot is stronger than the bullet."

"Integrity is the backbone of character."

"Honesty is the best policy."

"Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker, the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man."

"Truth is generally the best vindication against slander."

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

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

"You may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can't fool all the people all the time."

"Do not trust those who profess too much."

"Let your motto be resistance! Resistance! RESISTANCE!"

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

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

"God must care about common folks, I suppose—else he wouldn’t have made so many of us."

"In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free—honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve."

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

"No man is rich enough to buy back his past."

"Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally."

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

"I have always hated slavery, I think as much as any abolitionist."

"I have no prejudice against color. My father was a farmer and I have worked as one."

"There is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence."

"The promise of America is that every person, regardless of origin, race, or creed, can rise as high as their talent allows."

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

"All honor belongs to those who work hard and play fair."

"I hold that while man exists, it is his duty to improve not only his own condition, but to assist in ameliorating mankind."

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

"I am not concerned that I am not understood; I am concerned that I may not understand others."

"I am grateful to those who said no. It gave me the chance to prove them wrong."

"I am not afraid to die. I am afraid not to live up to my potential."

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

"I laugh because I must not cry, that is all, that is all."

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

"The best way out is always through."

"The less there is of merit, the more there is of pride."

"I do not claim to be smarter than everyone else, but I try to learn from every experience."

"Every man is blessed with gifts. The trick is discovering yours."

"I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by my principles."

"Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' But conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?'"

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

"I have always thought that the better part of speech is silence."

"When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind, unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted."

"Let us have faith that right makes might."

"To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men."

"I am resolved to be victorious."

"I have never had a feeling, politically, that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence."

"I shall do all that may be in my power to promote a peaceful settlement."

"I am willing to die for my country, but I cannot kill for it."

"The strength of a nation lies in the homes of its people."

"I have never willingly planted a thorn in any man's bosom."

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in."

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

"Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away."

"Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other."

"The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

"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."

"A house divided against itself cannot stand."

"We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection."

"The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union."

"The nation will remain half slave and half free, or become all one thing or all the other."

"Let us strive to do more, and more nobly, for the progress of mankind."

"We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live."

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

"Education is the most important subject which we as a people can engage in."

"I learned to read by stealing moments from work."

"The pursuit of knowledge will lead to peace."

"Any man can make a farm pay if he will only read and think."

"I don't know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be."

"Knowledge is power."

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

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

"I have never been ashamed to admit that I have grown wiser as I have grown older."

"The world is a vast library of experiences, and those who do not travel read only one page."

"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest."

"I have never denied the existence of the Almighty."

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

"God bless our national unity."

"The will of God prevails."

"In the present civil war it is quite possible that God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party."

"I am exceedingly anxious that God should not have spoken to me, and I have misunderstood Him."

"I have never believed that Providence has abandoned these United States."

"Let us discern the signs of the times, and embrace whatever is good."

"Right makes might."

"I have often wished that I were an angel, that I could fly forth and spread glad tidings over this wide-extended land."

"Let us commit ourselves to the truth, knowing that God is with us."

"The sweetest of all sounds is praise from the lips of children."