WIST

If all men were just, there would still be some, though not so much, need of government.

President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) US President (1861-65)
“Fragments on Government” (1854?)
In Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings, 1832-1858, Library of America ed. (1989)

We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not vanish from this earth.

President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) US President (1861-65)
“Gettysburg Address,” closing words (19 Nov 1863)

In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time.

President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) US President (1861-65)
“Meditation on the Divine Will,” Speech Fragment (Sep 1862)

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.

President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) US President (1861-65)
“On Slavery and Democracy” (fragment) (1858?)

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

President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) US President (1861-65)
“The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions,” Address to Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield (27 Jan 1838)

Holding it a sound maxim that it is better to be only sometimes right than at all times wrong, so soon as I discover my opinions to be erroneous I shall be ready to renounce them.

President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) US President (1861-65)
“To the People of Sangamo County,” campaign statement, Illinois State Legislature Race (9 Mar 1862)

Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem.

President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) US President (1861-65)
“To the People of Sangamo County,” speech running for Illinois state legislature (9 Mar 1832)

No man has a good enough memory to make a successful liar.

President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)

If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six sharpening my axe.

President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)

When I am getting ready to persuade a man, I spend one third of the time thinking about myself what I’m going to say and two thirds of the time thinking about him and what he is going to say.

President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)

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

President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)

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

President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)

I do the very best I know how — the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won’t amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.

President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)
In Francis Carpenter, Six Months at the White House, ch. 68 (1866)

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.

President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)

You cannot escape the responsibility tomorrow by evading it today.

President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)

I don’t know who my grandfather was; I’m much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.

President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)

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

President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)
Quoted in F B Carpenter, The Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln (1867); Lincoln repeated this as told to him by a fellow-passenger in a stagecoach.

The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty.

President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)

He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met.

President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)
Quoted in Frederick Trevor Hill, Lincoln the Lawyer, ch. 19 (1906). Hill adds, "History has considerately sheltered the identity of the victim."

I have simply tried to do what seemed best each day, as each day came.

President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)

In times like the present, men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be responsible through time and eternity.

President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)

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

President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)
Recalled by Lincoln from an Indiana church meeting talk  by "an old man named Glenn" in the 1810s.

 

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

President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)

Gentlemen, why don’t you laugh? With the fearful strain that is upon me night and day, if I did not laugh, I should die.

President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)

Most of us are just about as happy as we make up our minds to be.

President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)

I care not for a man’s religion whose dog or cat are not the better for it.

President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)

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

President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)

The best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time.

President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)

All through life be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.

President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)
Quoted in William M Thayer, The Pioneer Boy (1882).

I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.

President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)
No early authority has been found citing this from Lincoln. However, in The Sociable Story-teller (1846), Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor 1410-1437, was quoted : "Do I not most effectually destroy my enemies, in making them my friends?"