Abraham Lincoln

"I will prepare and some day my chance will come."

"There is another old poet whose name I do not now remember who said, 'Truth is the daughter of Time.'"

"'A living dog is better than a dead lion.' Judge Douglas, if not a dead lion for this work, is at least a caged and toothless one. How can he oppose the advances of slavery? He don't care anything about it."

"Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion,and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose - and you allow him to make war at pleasure."

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

"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy."

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

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

"Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough."

"Don't worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition."

"For my part, I desire to see the time when education - and by its means, morality, sobriety, enterprise and industry - shall become much more general than at present, and should be gratified to have it in my power to contribute something to the advancement of any measure which might have a tendency to accelerate the happy period."

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."

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

"How many legs does a dog have if you call his tail a leg? Four. Saying that a tail is a leg doesn't make it a leg."

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

"I am humble Abraham Lincoln. I have been solicited by my friends to become a candidate for the Legislature. My politics are short and sweet, like the old woman's dance."

"I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong."

"I can make more generals, but horses cost money."

"I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it."

"I do not think I could myself be brought to support a man for office whom I knew to be an open enemy of, and scoffer at, religion."

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

"I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end."

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

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

"I have great respect for the semicolon; it is a mighty handy little fellow."

"I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him."

"I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day."

"I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life."

"I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow."

"If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business."

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

"If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem."

"If there is anything that a man can do well, I say let him do it. Give him a chance."

"If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee."

"In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all; and to the young, it comes with bitterest agony because it takes them unawares. I have had experience enough to know what I say."

"It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues."

"It is not my nature, when I see a people borne down by the weight of their shackles - the oppression of tyranny - to make their life more bitter by heaping upon them greater burdens; but rather would I do all in my power to raise the yoke than to add anything that would tend to crush them."

"It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in that Declaration of Independence."

"It would astonish if not amuse the older citizens to learn that I (a strange, friendless, uneducated, penniless boy, working at ten dollars per month) have been put down as the candidate of pride, wealth, and aristocratic family distinction."

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."

"Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built."

"Lets have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."

"Marriage is neither heaven nor hell, it is simply purgatory."

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

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

"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that."

"Never regret what you don't write."