Abraham Lincoln was born in a single-room cabin on February 12, 1809, in Kentucky. He was a lawyer by profession and an American statesman who later became the 16th president of the United States and is the winner of the American Civil War—that ended slavery in the country. His leadership not only merged divided America but also put the USA out of its tumultuous time. He was a critic of slavery citing it as immoral and did all he could to end slavery in the country. Right after he won the presidential elections American Civil War broke out between the South and the North; however, he suppressed the usurpers. He was a truthful being and a humanitarian by the soul.
He not only preserved the Union, abolished slavery, but also modernizes the economy of the United States of America. As he was regarded as one of the great statesmen of American history so we decided to put together his thoughts for you guys. It is imperative to mention here that although he was a critic of slavery, his position on equals rights for black men was not so good. He said that black people should not get the right to vote or intermarry white people etc. However, in his last speech before he got assassinated he argued that black men who have served the Union in the war should get the right to vote. Buckle up and enjoy the text.
22 Great Leadership Quotes by Lincoln
He entered politics to serve his nation and joined the political party (The Republican) in 1854. His leadership qualities made him famous. He was a man of principles and preferred to surround himself with the most effective minds. He never compromised on righteousness and not once worried about the opposition. He believed that when a man is obvious on what he wants to do then he should do it without discerning about anything.
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“Courage is not the absence of fear. It is going forward with the face of fear.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“Commitment is what transforms a promise into reality.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“Be with a leader when he is right, stay with him when he is still right, but, leave him when he is wrong.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other thing.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“To give victory to the right, not bloody bullets, but peaceful ballots only, are necessary.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“I can make more generals, but horses cost money…” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“The best way to predict your future is to create it.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“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 up to what light I have.” ― Abraham Lincoln
Have These Abraham Lincoln Quotes On Leadership Inspired You?
4 Abraham Lincoln Quotes About Liberty
Liberty or freedom is the dearest and important thing for a human being. They cannot be chained and put in a cage rather they want to be free till their death. Want to freely express their ideas, opinions to the world. People have taken a stance against the harshest of oppressors when they saw their liberty being taken away or tarnished. Humans by nature want to be free and will agitate to the best of their capabilities when someone or something curbs their liberty. Here are some of Lincoln’s thoughts on Liberty.
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“Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.” – Abraham Lincoln
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“We all declare for liberty, but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some, the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others, the same word many mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men’s labor. Here are two, not only different but incompatible things, called by the same name – liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names – liberty and tyranny.” – Abraham Lincoln
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“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
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“It is your business to rise up and preserve the Union and liberty, for yourselves, and not for me. I desire they shall be constitutionally preserved.” – Abraham Lincoln
17 Inspirational Abraham Lincoln Quotes on Education
Lincoln had very limited access to formal education, as he has to work continuously to support his family. His father was a farmer and an illiterate, but his stepmother encouraged him to read. He did his law private and accustomed travel miles to borrow books.
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“Education does not mean teaching people what they do not know. It means teaching them to behave as they do not behave.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“I will prepare and some day my chance will come.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“Every head should be cultivated.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“A capacity, and taste, for reading, gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“My best friend is a person who will give me a book I have no read.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new after all.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“I am slow to learn and slow to forget that which I have learned.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“My mind is like a piece of steel, very hard to scratch anything on it and almost impossible after you get it there to rub it out.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“All I have learned, I learned from books.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“A new book is like a friend that I have yet to meet.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“That everyone may receive at least a moderate education appears to be an objective of vital importance.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“My father, at the death of his father, was but six years of age; and he grew up, literally without education.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“When I came of age I did not know much. Still somehow, I could read, write, and cipher to the Rule of Three…. The little advanceI now have upon this store of education, I have picked up from time to time under the pressure of necessity.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“I am absent altogether too much to be a suitable instructor for a law-student. When a man has reached the age that Mr. Widner has,and has already been doing for himself, my judgment is, that he reads the books for himself without an instructor. That is precisely the way I came to the law.” ― Abraham Lincoln
23 Abraham Lincoln Quotes on Freedom & Equality
Lincoln witnessed slavery, the way white landlords treated their black slaves was miserable and he had an awfully soft corner in his heart for these slaves. He believed that all men are born equal and should be treated equally. He was against racism.
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“My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“Whatever you are, be a good one.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“I’m a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn’t have the heart to let him down.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“I would rather be a little nobody, then to be an evil somebody.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“To ease another’s heartache is to forget one’s own.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“Character is like a tree and reputation its shadow. The shadow is what we think it is and the tree is the real thing.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“I will prepare and someday my chance will come.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“If you would win a man to your cause first convince him that you are his sincere friend.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“The best way to predict your future is to create it.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“There are no bad pictures; that’s just how your face looks sometimes.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“Tact – the ability to describe others as they see themselves.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“Those who look for the bad in people will surely find it.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“And in the end it is not the years in your life that count, it’s the life in your years.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” ― Abraham Lincoln
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“Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.” ― Abraham Lincoln
2 Abraham Lincoln Quotes About Democracy
A form of government where people decide who among them is the most competent to rule or govern them is known as Democracy. People have often criticized Democracy and highlighted its limitations; however, right at this moment there is no alternate to it and this is the best possible option for humans. We can and should eliminate the shortcomings and make it more perfect and viable for humans. Here are some of the quotes of Lincoln about Democracy.
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“Democracy is “government of, by and for the people.” – Abraham Lincoln
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“Democracy will rise superior to the money power.” – Abraham Lincoln
12+ Slavery Quotations by Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln was the one who led America through a civil war (1861- 1865), which began with the conflict of the enslavement of black people. He outlawed slavery in the country and shaped the union military strategy. Abraham Lincoln was Moses for African Americans. He was anti-slavery and believed that all slaves should be freed and treated like other members of society.
Many leaders want Lincoln to compromise on slavery but he never conceded. His famous “house dividing speech” made his vision clear in front of the world. His vocalizations in favor of Black people made him controversial and, it was the prime time that a Negroid stepped into the white house on his oath-taking ceremony.
The curse of slavery still exists in the world in new forms and shapes that need to be curbed out. No human should be taken or sold into slavery; it’s a disgrace to humankind. See below what Abraham has said about slavery:
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“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.”
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“As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.”
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“Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.”
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“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
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“I believe this Government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.”
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“If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.”
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“In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free.”
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“In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free – honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.”
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“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.”
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“This is a world of compensations; and he who would be no slave, must consent to have no slave.”
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“I think slavery is wrong, morally, and politically. I desire that it should be no further spread in these United States, and I should not object if it should gradually terminate in the whole Union.”
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“If we cannot give freedom to every creature, let us do nothing that will impose slavery upon any other creature.”
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“Free labor has the inspiration of hope; pure slavery has no hope.”
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“If as the friends of colonization hope, the present and coming generations of our countrymen shall by any means, succeed in freeing our land from the dangerous presence of slavery; and, at the same time, in restoring a captive people to their long-lost father-land, with bright prospects for the future; and this too, so gradually, that neither races nor individuals shall have suffered by the change, it will indeed be a glorious consummation.” – Abraham Lincoln
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“Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man’s nature — opposition to it is in his love of justice.” – Abraham Lincoln
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“I have always hated slavery, I think as much as any Abolitionist.” – Abraham Lincoln
Apart from Abraham Lincoln, Harriet Tubman has also an icon of the antislavery campaign, read Harriet Tubman’s quotes.
3 Abraham Lincoln Quotes about Civil War
War becomes inevitable when we face an oppressor; it becomes do or die situation. Abraham fought the war for his country and his countrymen for a new dawn. And certainly, he achieved what he wanted. Leaders always buy peace for their people to the last moment and when war becomes necessary they fight on the front lines like Lincoln. Some of his quotes on civil war are as follow:
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“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” – Abraham Lincoln
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“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 all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.” – Abraham Lincoln
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“Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.” – Abraham Lincoln
An excellent Orator
Abraham Lincoln was known for his enchanted power to make classical speeches. During the American Civil War, he made the famous “Gettysburg address” that leaves its mark in American history.
This is the audio version of historical words spoken by this gentleman.
10 Best Abraham Lincoln Quotes Images in 2022
Check out this fantastic collection of Abraham Lincoln quotes wallpapers below:
Abraham Lincoln Death
On April 14, 1865, he was shot dead by one of the famous stage actor’s John Wilkes in Washington DC. A conspiracy near the end of the civil war leads to this sad calamity. He was mourned throughout the world and is considered as a prodigious forfeiture in the history of American leaders.
Conclusion
Abraham Lincoln was a dream man for African Americans. He will always be remembered in golden words in the history of Americans. He made a huge contribution to modernizing American politics.
These are some of the best and amazing Abraham Lincoln quotes for you people, hope this will stir a new fire in you and will make you something more than just a self-centered person.
What is your favorite quote by Abraham Lincoln? Drop your views in the comment box.
Louis miccio
Tuesday 3rd of November 2020
I used to read about Abraham Lincoln while I was kid but never realised the deep meaning in his sayings. If people like him became the leader in today's world, I am more than 100% sure that disgusting things like racism will vanish from the face of the earth. If we just take his words on equality we can do wonders in this world but unfortunately leaders of today's world always support such things for their personal gains.
Hassan Saleem
Friday 6th of November 2020
Hi Louis,
We second your opinion that if leaders of today's world became like him or even just follow half of his teachings then world would be a much better place to live in. Anyhow things are moving on slowly but we believe in the end positivity will prevail.
Thanks Hassan