When all think alike, no one thinks very much.
Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) American journalist and author
(Attributed)
It takes as much courage to have tried and failed as it does to have tried and succeeded.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906-2001) American writer, pilot
(Attributed)
Good communication is stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906-2001) American writer, pilot
Gift From the Sea, ch. 6 “Argonauta” (1955)
(Source)
Often misquoted as "is as stimulating" or "is just as stimulating as."
The most exhausting thing in life, I have discovered, is being insincere..
Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906-2001) American writer, pilot
Gifts from the Sea (1955)
I am convinced, the longer I live, that life & its blessings are not so entirely unjustly distributed [as] when we are suffering greatly, we are inclined to suppose.
Mary Todd Lincoln (1818-1882) American First Lady
Letter to Mrs. Slataper (29 Sep. 1868)
My evil genius Procrastination has whispered me to tarry ’til a more convenient season.
Mary Todd Lincoln (1818-1882) American First Lady
Letter (Jun. 1841)
The best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)
Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)
I care not for a man’s religion whose dog or cat are not the better for it.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)
Frequently attributed to Lincoln without citation, it's actually a variant of "I would give nothing for that man's religion, whose very dog and cat are not the better for it," by Rowland Hill (1744-1833), an English preacher, attributed in George Seaton Bowes, Illustrative Gatherings, or, Preachers and Teachers (1860). Lincoln may have used the line.
I am not at all concerned about that, for I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right; but, it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I, and this nation, should be on the Lord’s side.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
(Attributed) (1862)
Reply to a clergyman who said he hoped the Lord was on our side. In Francis B. Carpenter, Six Months at the White House with Abraham Lincoln, p. 282 (1867). In some places cited as 1864.
Most of us are just about as happy as we make up our minds to be.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
(Spurious)
Not found any earlier than in casual attribution in 1914. More info here.
I desire to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end, when I come to lay down the reins of power, I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Reply to the Missouri Committee of Seventy (30 Sep 1864)
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.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)
If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)
When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)
Recalled by Lincoln from an Indiana church meeting talk by "an old man named Glenn" in the 1810s.
I have simply tried to do what seemed best each day, as each day came.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)
Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation we began by declaring that “all men are created equal.” We now practically read it “all men are created equal, except Negroes.” When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read “all men are created equal, except Negroes and foreigners and Catholics.” When it comes to this, I shall prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty — to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Letter to Joshua Speed (1855-08-24)
(Source)
Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Speech to 140th Indiana regiment (17 Mar 1865)
He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, 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."
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.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)
People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)
One of the earliest references to something like this was in an 1863 newspaper ad for Lincoln’s favorite humorist, Artemus Ward, that included this faux testimonial (possibly written by Ward): “I have never heard any of your lectures, but from what I can learn I should say that for people who like the kind of lectures you deliver, they are just the kind of lectures such people like. Yours respectfully, O. Abe.”
Quoted in G.W.E. Russell, Collections and Recollections, ch. 30 (1898), regarding “an unreadably sentimental book.”
According to Anthony Gross, Lincoln’s Own Stories (1902), Lincoln’s was speaking to Robert Dale Owen, who had insisted on reading to Lincoln a long manuscript on spiritualism. "Well, for those who like that sort of thing, I should think it is just about the sort of thing they would like."
In Emanual Hertz, ed., "Father Abraham," Lincoln Talks: A Biography in Anecdote (1939), the response was to a young poet asking him about his newly published poems.
More discussion of this quotation: Ralph Keyes, The Quote Verifier.
It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, 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.
I don’t know who my grandfather was; I’m much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)
You cannot escape the responsibility tomorrow by evading it today.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, 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.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)
In Francis Carpenter, Six Months at the White House, ch. 68 (1866)
My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)
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.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
“On Slavery and Democracy” (fragment) (1858?)
What I do say is that no man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent. I say this is the leading principle, the sheet-anchor of American republicanism. […] According to our ancient faith, the just powers of governments are derived from the consent of the governed. Now the relation of master and slave is pro tanto a total violation of this principle. The master not only governs the slave without his consent, but he governs him by a set of rules altogether different from those which he prescribes for himself. Allow all the governed an equal voice in the government, and that, and that only, is self-government.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Speech at Peoria, Illinois (1854)
In response to Stephen Douglas. Full text.
That some should be rich, shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprize. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Reply to New York Workingmen’s Democratic Republican Association (21 Mar 1864)
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan — to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Inaugural Address, conclusion (4 Mar 1865)
(Source)
A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations … is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it does of necessity fly to anarchy or to despotism.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
First Inaugural Address (1861)
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.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)
I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Letter to Albert G. Hodges (4 Apr. 1864)
Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Letter to Isham Reavis (5 Nov 1855)
The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Annual Message to Congress (1 Dec 1862)
If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six sharpening my axe.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)
No man has a good enough memory to make a successful liar.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)
If you love the sacred and despise the ordinary, you are still bobbing in the ocean of delusion.
Lin-Chi (1915-1973) Chinese T'ang master
(Attributed)
Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.
Lin Yu-t'ang (1895-1976) Chinese writer
(Attributed)
Posterity sometimes just seems like a drunk passing out cigars at random – when it passes over men like John you realize how arbitrary fortune can be, and how the Valhalla of the Briefly Reknowned But Mostly Obscure is probably the most interesting quarter of the afterlife.
James Lileks (b. 1958) American journalist, columnist
The Bleat (21 Apr 2003)
http://www.lileks.com/bleats/archive/03/0403/042103.html
The modern world breaks down into two categories — those who say things like
James Lileks (b. 1958) American journalist, columnist
The Bleat (27 Nov. 2002)
Always make sure that the vehemence with which you express your opinions has a toehold in reality, or people who actually know something about the subject will conclude you
James Lileks (b. 1958) American journalist, columnist
The Bleat (25 Mar 2002)
The passage of time makes these men seem unhuman. We need to remember that they weren’t dropped on the planet by leather-winged minions of Moloch. They were people. Hitler brushed his teeth; Hitler took a leak and may have whistled while he did so. He may have clipped his toenails while listening to light opera on the Gramophone. Being evil is not a full-time job.
James Lileks (b. 1958) American journalist, columnist
The Bleat (28 Feb. 2003)
http://www.lileks.com/bleats/archive/03/0203/022803.html
Any vacation would, under the current circumstances, not be a vacation at all, unless my dearly beloved child can be cryogenically frozen and stored. Even if this were possible, I would spend the vacation worrying about the reliability of the power supply in the freezers.
James Lileks (b. 1958) American journalist, columnist
The Bleat (16 Aug. 2002)
http://www.lileks.com/bleats/archive/02/0802/080202.html#081602
All because some guy didn’t tie down his cargo. Will the offender ever know what he did? Not in this life. I
James Lileks (b. 1958) American journalist, columnist
The Bleat (10 Oct. 2002)
Obviously crime pays, or there’d be no crime.
G. Gordon Liddy (1930-2021) American political operative, commentator, actor
(Attributed)
Never undertake anything for which you wouldn’t have the courage to ask the blessing of heaven.
Georg C. Lichtenberg (1742-1799) German physicist, writer
(Attributed)
With most people, disbelief in one thing is founded on blind belief in another.
Georg C. Lichtenberg (1742-1799) German physicist, writer
Aphorisms, Notebook L, #81 [p. 674] (1796-99) [tr. Tester (2012)]
(Source)
Alternate translations:
- "With most people, unbelief in one thing is founded upon blind belief in another."
- "With most people disbelief in a thing is founded on a blind belief in some other thing." [tr. Hollingdale (1990)]
One’s first step in wisdom is to question everything — and one’s last is to come to terms with everything.
Georg C. Lichtenberg (1742-1799) German physicist, writer
(Attributed)
Before we blame, we should first see if we can’t excuse.
Georg C. Lichtenberg (1742-1799) German physicist, writer
Nachtrag zu den moralischen Bemerkungen
You can’t accept one individual’s opinion, particularly if it’s a female and you know — God willing, I hope, for her sake, it’s not the case — but when they get a period, it’s really difficult for them to function as normal human beings.
Jerry Lewis (1926-2017) American comic actor, filmmaker, philanthropist
(1986)
Responding to a harsh review from a female critic
I willingly believe that the damned are, in one sense, successful, rebels to the end; that the doors of hell are locked on the inside.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Problem of Pain, ch. 8
There is something awfully nice about reading a book again, with all the half-unconscious memories it brings back.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Letters of C.S. Lewis to Arthur Greeves (16 Nov. 1915)
Not that I am (I think) in much danger of ceasing to believe in God. The real danger is of coming to believe such dreadful things about Him. The conclusion I dread is not, “So, there’s no God after all,” but, “So this is what God’s really like. Deceive yourself no longer.”
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
A Grief Observed, ch. 1 (1961)