100+ Abraham Lincoln Famous Quotes: Timeless Wisdom & Inspiring Copywriting

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

"I look forward to a time when this country will have a female president."

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

"Whatever you are, be a good one."

"A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams."

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

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

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

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

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

"Do not be embarrassed by your mistakes—nothing can teach us better."

"He has a right to criticize, who would be better if he had the chance."

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

"Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be."

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

"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."

"The path was worn and slippery. My foot slipped from under me, knocking the other out of the way, but I recovered and finally made it through."

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

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

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

"Success is not measured by how high you climb, but how many people you bring with you."

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

"The struggle of today is not altogether for today—it is for a vast future also."

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

"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master."

"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 without that other's consent."

"Liberty is the finest thing man can prize."

"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."

"We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it."

"In a democracy, every citizen, regardless of race, religion, or creed, has equal rights."

"The ballot is stronger than the bullet."

"Free labor is the superior system."

"Let us have faith that right makes might."

"When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion."

"Integrity is the thread that runs through all virtues."

"Truth is easier to defend than lies."

"Honor is worth more than money."

"It is safer to be feared than loved, if one cannot be both." (Note: Often misattributed; included here as a contrast.)

"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."

"Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its horrors."

"Do nothing which is of no use."

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

"I believe that truth is the safest and most lasting basis for action."

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

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

"All men are created equal—sayings of great men should not be forgotten."

"I have always hated slavery as much as any Abolitionist."

"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."

"There is no such thing as perfect justice in an imperfect world."

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

"The promise of America is a government of, by, and for all."

"A house divided against itself cannot stand."

"I am not ashamed to confess that I am an abolitionist."

"Let us judge not, that we be not judged."

"The world has never had a good definition of the word 'liberty'."

"No man is good enough to govern another without consent."

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

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

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

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

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

"The leading rule for the lawyer, as for the person in every other calling, is not to wound the feelings of others."

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

"Live within your means, tell the truth, and avoid debt."

"The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend."

"No man knows the value of time until he has nothing else to lose."

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

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

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

"Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once."

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

"Let us have faith that right makes might."

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

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

"I am not prepared to say that I would not go to war again if the necessity arose."

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

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

"Herein let us strive to be greater than the injury."

"We must not be enemies."

"With malice toward none, with charity for all."

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

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

"How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg."

"I laugh because I must not cry."

"Reports of my illness are greatly exaggerated."

"I am not concerned that someone thinks slowly, but I am concerned when they publish it."

"A jury is a body called together to determine who has the better lawyer."

"Beware of spelling errors. They can lead to serious misunderstandings."

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

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

"I told them I didn’t want any music at my funeral. Just honest eulogies."

"God must love the common people—he made so many of them."

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

"I am not fit to be President of the United States, but I trust God knows what He is about."

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

"The sweetest of all sounds is praise from God."

"What I desire most is that justice be done, and that the nation survive."

"The will of God prevails."

"I have never claimed to be infallible."

"God gives us the blessings of life, but we must use them wisely."

"I have often borrowed from the Bible, but I never quote it exactly."

"Let us pray that the lamp of liberty may burn brightly in every heart."

"I have sought to live humbly before God."

"The Almighty has His own purposes."

"I leave you, hoping that you will find it possible to forgive the shortcomings which I leave behind."

"I have always believed that the better angels of our nature will prevail."

"Let us strive on to finish the work we are in."

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

"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here."

"We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain."

"To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan."

"Peace, harmony, and union—the blessings of peace are worth fighting for."

"Let us strive to live in such a way that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry."

"History is not everything, but it is the starting point."

"The past is gone, the future is not yet here. We have only now to shape the world."

"May the echoes of liberty resound forever."