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Quotations of Abraham Lincoln

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A collection of things that Abraham Lincoln said or wrote:

"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."

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

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

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

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

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

"Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves."

"Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm."

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

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

"Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving the Constitution of the United States as our fathers made it inviolate. The people of the United States are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution."

"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."

"The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly."

"It is my ambition and desire to so administer the affairs of the government while I remain President that if at the end I have lost every other Friend on earth I shall at least have one friend remaining and that one shall be down inside me."

"If people see the Capitol going on, it is a sign we intend the Union shall go on."

"Nowhere in the world is presented a government of so much liberty and equality. To the humblest and poorest amongst us are held out the highest privileges and positions."

"My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth."