Top 500 Abraham Lincoln Quotes (2025 Update)
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451. “Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world?”

— Abraham Lincoln

452. “The ant, who has toiled and dragged a crumb to his nest, will furiously defend the fruit of his labor, against whatever robber assails him. So plain, that the most dumb and stupid slave that ever toiled for a master, does constantly know that he is wronged.”

— Abraham Lincoln

453. “We must settle this question now – whether in a free government the minority have the right to break it up whenever they choose. If we fail, it will go far to prove the incapability of the people to govern themselves.”

— Abraham Lincoln

454. “My Dear McClellan, if you don’t want to use the army I should like to borrow it for a while. Yours respectfully.”

— Abraham Lincoln

455. “We have all heard of Young America. He is the most current youth of the age. Some think him conceited, and arrogant; but has he not reason to entertain a rather extensive opinion of himself? Is he not the inventor and owner of the present, and sole hope of the future?”

— Abraham Lincoln

456. “Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors of bullets, and that when ballots have fairly and constitutionall y decided there can be no successful appeal back to bullets.”

— Abraham Lincoln

457. “The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who’ll get me a book I ain’t read.”

— Abraham Lincoln

458. “So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war!”

— Abraham Lincoln

459. “The trouble with Hooker is that he’s got his headquarters where his hindquarters aught to be.”

— Abraham Lincoln

460. “God bless the Methodist Church – bless all the churches – and blessed be God, Who, in this our great trial, giveth us the churches.”

— Abraham Lincoln

461. “If all do not join now to save the good old ship of the Union this voyage nobody will have a chance to pilot her on another voyage.”

— Abraham Lincoln

462. “Let us diligently apply the means, never doubting that a just God, in his own good time, will give us the rightful result.”

— Abraham Lincoln

463. “The demon of intemperance ever seems to have delighted in sucking the blood of genius and of generosity.”

— Abraham Lincoln

464. “War, at the best, is terrible, and this war of ours, in its magnitude and in its duration, is one of the most terrible.”

— Abraham Lincoln

465. “I can make more generals, but horses cost money.”

— Abraham Lincoln

466. “Many free countries have lost their liberty, and ours may lose hers; but, if she shall, be it my proudest plume, not that I was the last to desert, but that I never deserted her.”

— Abraham Lincoln

467. “The sense of obligation to continue is present in all of us. A duty to strive is the duty of us all. I felt a call to that duty.”

— Abraham Lincoln

468. “As long as the Almighty permitted intelligent men, created in his image and likeness, to fight in public and kill each other while the world looks on approvingly, it’s not for me to deprive the chickens of the same privilege.”

— Abraham Lincoln

469. “It is easiest to “be all things to all men,” but it is not honest. Self-respect must be sacrificed every hour in the day.”

— Abraham Lincoln

470. “No client ever had money enough to bribe my conscience or to stop its utterance against wrong, and oppression.”

— Abraham Lincoln

471. “We hope all danger may be overcome; but to conclude that no danger may ever arise would itself be extremely dangerous.”

— Abraham Lincoln

472. “A right result, at this time, will be worth more to the world, than ten times the men, and ten times the money.”

— Abraham Lincoln

473. “As a general rule never take your whole fee in advance, nor any more than a small retainer. When fully paid beforehand, you are more than a common mortal if you can feel the same interest in the case, as if something was still in prospect for you, as well as for your client.”

— Abraham Lincoln

474. “Among free men there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet.”

— Abraham Lincoln

475. “The power confided in me will be used to hold, occupy and possess the property and places belonging to the government, and to collect the duties and imposts.”

— Abraham Lincoln

476. “If you intend to go to work there is no better place than right where you are; if you do not intend to go to work, you can not get along anywhere.”

— Abraham Lincoln

477. “May the Almighty grant that the cause of truth, justice, and humanity, shall in no wise suffer at my hands.”

— Abraham Lincoln

478. “I failed, I failed, and that is about all that can be said about it.”

— Abraham Lincoln

479. “I know the hole he went in at, but I can’t tell you what hole he will come out of.”

— Abraham Lincoln

480. “How many times have I laughed at you telling me plainly that I was too lazy to be anything but a lawyer.”

— Abraham Lincoln

481. “Let all Americans – let all lovers of liberty everywhere – join in the great and good work. If we do this, we shall not only have saved the Union; but we shall have so saved it, as to make, and to keep it, forever worthy of the saving.”

— Abraham Lincoln

482. “My paramount objective in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not to either save or destroy Slavery.”

— Abraham Lincoln

483. “Our political problem now is “Can we, as a nation, continue together permanentlyforever – half slave, and half free?” The problem is too mighty for me. May God, in his mercy, superintend the solution.”

— Abraham Lincoln

484. “Freedom is the natural condition of the human race, in which the Almighty intended men to live. Those who fight the purpose of the Almighty will not succeed. They always have been, they always will be beaten.”

— Abraham Lincoln

485. “I have never united myself to any church because I found difficulty in giving my assent without mental reservation to the long, complicated statements of Christian doctrine which characterize the articles of belief and the usual confession of faith.”

— Abraham Lincoln

486. “I am not a very sentimental man; and the best sentiment I can think of is, that if you collect the signatures of all persons who are no less distinguished than I, you will have a very undistinguishing mass of names.”

— Abraham Lincoln

487. “A nation may be said to consist of its territory, its people, and its laws. The territory is the only part which is of certain durability.”

— Abraham Lincoln

488. “I am very glad indeed to see you to-night, and yet I will not say I thank you for this call, but I do most sincerely thank Almighty God for the occasion on which you have called.”

— Abraham Lincoln

489. “If I had my way, this war would never have been commenced. If I had been allowed my way this war would have been ended before this.”

— Abraham Lincoln

490. “Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation...”

— Abraham Lincoln

491. “An allusion has been made to the Homestead Law. I think it worthy of consideration, and that the wild lands of the country should be distributed so that every man should have the means and opportunity of benefitting his condition.”

— Abraham Lincoln

492. “I am always for the man who wishes to work.”

— Abraham Lincoln

493. “I cannot make it better known than it already is that I strongly favor colonization.”

— Abraham Lincoln

494. “Continue to execute all the express provisions of our national Constitution, and the Union will endure forever-it being impossible to destroy it, except by some action not provided for in the instrument itself.”

— Abraham Lincoln

495. “The legalized liquor business is the tragedy of our civilization. Alcohol is the greatest and most blighting curse of our modern civilization. The liquor seller is simply and only a privileged malefactor – a criminal.”

— Abraham Lincoln

496. “The political horizon looks dark and lowering; but the people, under Providence, will set all right.”

— Abraham Lincoln

497. “We should avoid planting and cultivating too many thorns in the bosom of society.”

— Abraham Lincoln

498. “Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other right.”

— Abraham Lincoln

499. “I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world.”

— Abraham Lincoln

500. “My friends I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of that Divine Being, who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance, I cannot fail.”

— Abraham Lincoln