Quotes from Abraham Lincoln

He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.

This is a world of compensations; and 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, can not long retain it.

This is essentially a people's contest…. It is a struggle for maintaining in the world that form and substance of government whose leading object is to elevate the condition of men—to lift artificial weights from all shoulders—to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all—to afford all an unfettered start, and a fair chance, in the race of life.

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.

The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend.

And in the end it is not the years in your life that count, it's the life in your years.

These men ask for just the same thing, fairness, and fairness only. This, so far as in my power, they, and all others, shall have.

Whenever there is a conflict between human rights and property rights, human rights must prevail.

The President last night had a dream. He was in a party of plain people and as it became known who he was they began to comment on his appearance. One of them said, "He is a common-looking man." The President replied, "Common-looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them."

I'm a slow walker, but I never walk back.

Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors.

Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived.