Powerful Abraham Lincoln Quotes on Leadership and Success
Last Updated: 17 Mar 2025
“A capacity, and taste, for reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others.”
“A friend is one who has the same enemies as you have.”
“A living dog is better than a dead lion.' Judge Douglas, if not a dead lion for this work, is at least a caged and toothless one. How can he oppose the advances of slavery? He don't care anything about it.”
“A man watches his pear tree day after day, impatient for the ripening of the fruit. Let him attempt to force the process, and he may spoil both fruit and tree. But let him patiently wait, and the ripe pear at length falls into his lap.”
“A private soldier has as much right to justice as a major-general.”
“A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me.”
“All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.”
“All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.”
“Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose - and you allow him to make war at pleasure.”
“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.”
“Among the friends of Union, there is great diversity of sentiment and of policy in regard to slavery and the African race among us.”
“Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable - a most sacred right - a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world.”
“As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.”
“As our case is new, we must think and act anew.”
“At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”
“Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets.”
“Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.”
“Being elected to Congress, though I am very grateful to our friends for having done it, has not pleased me as much as I expected.”
“Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new at all.”
“Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”
“Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.”
“Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.”
“Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.”
“Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.”
“Don't worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.”
“Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States - old as well as new - North as well as South.”
“Every one desires to live long, but no one would be old.”
“Extemporaneous speaking should be practiced and cultivated. It is the lawyer's avenue to the public. However able and faithful he may be in other respects, people are slow to bring him business if he cannot make a speech.”
“Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We, of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.”
“For my part, I desire to see the time when education - and by its means, morality, sobriety, enterprise and industry - shall become much more general than at present, and should be gratified to have it in my power to contribute something to the advancement of any measure which might have a tendency to accelerate the happy period.”
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
“Gold is good in its place; but loving, brave, patriotic men are better than gold.”
“Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.”
“He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.”
“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.”
“Hold on with a bulldog grip, and chew and choke as much as possible.”
“How many legs does a dog have if you call his tail a leg? Four. Saying that a tail is a leg doesn't make it a leg.”
“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.”
“I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.”
“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 by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.”
“I believe this government cannot endure permanently, half slave and half free.”
“I can make more generals, but horses cost money.”
“I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.”
“I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.”
“I don't like that man. I must get to know him better.”
“I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.”
“I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.”
“I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.”
“I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.”
“I will prepare and some day my chance will come.”
“If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.”
“It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.”
“Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
“My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.”
“No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.”
“No man is good enough to govern another man without the other's consent.”
“Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.”