Quotes from Abraham Lincoln

Avoid popularity if you would have peace.

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.

Surely God would not have created such a being as man, with an ability to grasp the infinite, to exist only for a day! No, no, man was made for immortality.

If a man had more than one life, I think a little hanging would not hurt this one; but after he is once dead, we cannot bring him back, no matter how sorry we may be; so the boy shall be pardoned.

He who would be no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves and, under a just God, cannot long retain it.

Whatever woman may cast her lot with mine, should any ever do so, it is my intention to do all in my power to make her happy and contented; and there is nothing I can imagine that would make me more unhappy than to fail in the effort.

Why was the amendment, expressly declaring the right of the people to exclude slavery, voted down? Plainly enough now, the adoption of it would have spoiled the niche for the Dred Scott decision.

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.

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

Character is like a tree, and reputation is like its shadow.

If you trust, you will be disappointed occasionally, but if you mistrust, you will be miserable all the time.

Let us renew our trust in god, and go forward without fear.