Quotes By Abraham Lincoln

If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember when I did not so think ... to this day, I have done no official act in mere deference to my abstract judgment and feeling on slavery.

My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union ... If I could save the Union without freeing any slave... if I could save it by freeing all the slaves... I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause.

We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies... the mystic chords of memory... will swell the chorus of the Union... touched by the better angels of our nature.

While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration... can very seriously injure the government

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

I wish all men to be free.

The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty ... We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing.

Property is the fruit of labor... Labor is superior to capital and deserves much the higher consideration.

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

I believe the Declaration that 'all men are created equal' is the great fundamental principle upon which our free institutions rest.

There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law.

You are ambitious, which, within reasonable bounds, does good rather than harm.

Half‑finished work generally proves to be labor lost.

Let him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor diligently to build one for himself

Every man, black, white or yellow... that bread should be allowed to go to that mouth without controversy.

I say 'try'; if we never try, we shall never succeed.

I have an irrepressible desire to live till I can be assured that the world is a little better for my having lived in it.

Adhere to your purpose and you will soon feel as well as you ever did. On the contrary, if you falter, and give up, you will lose the power of keeping any resolution, and will regret it all your life.

I go for admitting all whites to the right of suffrage, who pay taxes or bear arms, (by no means excluding females.)

I go for all sharing the privileges of the government who assist in bearing its burthens.