Lincoln Said....
By Gordon Leidner — Great American History
A Source of Reliable Lincoln Quotes
Ever get tired of reading ridiculous Lincoln quotes?
Few icons of history have been quoted more than Abraham Lincoln. The internet is full of quotes–and more often misquotes–of America’s sixteenth president. Lincon was a man of honesty, determination, faith, and character. He led America through the tumultuous years of civil war, and what he said and accomplished is certainly a testimony to his life as a great leader. But his admirers often get him wrong!
A Solution to the Lincoln “Mis-Quotes” Problem!
This website, Great American History, provides a wealth of free information on Abraham Lincoln and the American Civil War. Its content has been thoroughly researched by the author, and since the website’s inception in 1996 has been often quoted by teachers, students, researchers, bloggers, journalists, and other websites.
Ever get tired of reading ridiculous Lincoln quotes?
Few icons of history have been quoted more than Abraham Lincoln. The internet is full of quotes–and more often misquotes–of America’s sixteenth president. Lincon was a man of honesty, determination, faith, and character. He led America through the tumultuous years of civil war, and what he said and accomplished is certainly a testimony to his life as a great leader. But his admirers often get him wrong!
A Solution to the Lincoln “Mis-Quotes” Problem!
This website, Great American History, provides a wealth of free information on Abraham Lincoln and the American Civil War. Its content has been thoroughly researched by the author, and since the website’s inception in 1996 has been often quoted by teachers, students, researchers, bloggers, journalists, and other websites.
Lincoln Quotes from Great American History's "lincolnsaid" Twitter page:
- “Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way.” from Abraham Lincoln: Quotes, Quips and Speeches
- “I trust I understand ..the right of self-government..each man should do precisely as he pleases with all which is exclusively his own. ” AL
- “Many free countries have lost their liberty; and ours may lose hers . .” 12/20/1839 from Abraham Lincoln: Quotes, Quips, and Speeches
- Abraham Lincoln: “I do not state a thing and say I know it when I do not .. I mean to put a case no stronger than the truth will allow.”
- Abraham Lincoln said: “The people know their rights, and they are never slow to assert and maintain them, when they are invaded.”
- “While acting as their representative, I shall be governed by [constituent’s] will on all subjects . . which I have the means of knowing..”
- Lincoln said: “In leaving the people’s business in their hands, we cannot be wrong.” From Abraham Lincoln: Quotes, Quips, and Speeches p. 50
- Lincoln said “I am very little inclined on any occasion to say anything unless I hope to produce some good by it.” greatamericanhistory.net
- Lincoln: “It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God . .” greatamericanhistory.net
- Abraham Lincoln said: “The better part of one’s life consists of his friendships.”
- “I am a patient man–always willing to forgive on the Christian terms of repentance…” From Abraham Lincoln: Quotes, Quips, and Speeches
- “Yet, under all circumstances, trusting to our Maker .. we will not despair, or despond.” Abraham Lincoln: Quotes, Quips, and Speeches, p120
- Abraham Lincoln: “I mean to put [forward] a case no stronger than the truth will allow.” from Abraham Lincoln: Quotes, Quips, and Speeches
- Abraham Lincoln said:”[It is the]duty of government to render prompt justice against itself, in favor of citizens.”
- “You must remember that some things legally right are not morally right.” from Abraham Lincoln: Quotes, Quips, and Speeches by G. Leidner
- Abraham Lincoln said: “What is to be will be, and no cares of ours can arrest nor reverse the decree.” greatamericanhistory.com
- greatamericanhistory.net: Lincoln said In regards to this great book [the Bible] I have but to say it is the best gift God has given to men.
- Abraham Lincoln said: This government must be preserved .. nowhere in the world is presented a government of so much liberty and equality.
- Abraham Lincoln said: “Let us readopt the Declaration of Independence, and with it the practices and policy which harmonize with it.”
- Lincoln said: I made a point of honor and conscience in all things to stick to my word, especially if others had been induced to act on it.
- Abraham Lincoln: Let us diligently apply the means, never doubting that a just God, in his own good time, will give us the rightful result.
- Lincoln said “It is difficult to make a man miserable when he feels worthy of himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him.”
- Lincoln: 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?
- Lincoln: “Liberty to all-the principle that clears the path for all-gives hope to all-and by consequence, enterprise, and industry, to all.”
- Lincoln: “In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free . . We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last, best hope of earth.
- Lincoln said: “Let me go down linked to the truth–let me die in the advocacy of what is just and right.” See greatamericanhistory.net
- Lincoln: “I attempt no compliment to my own sagacity. I claim not to have controlled events, but confess . . that events have controlled me”
- Lincoln: “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.” www.greatamericanhistory.net
- Lincoln said “The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.”
- Lincoln: I do not consider that I have ever accomplished anything without God .. I must do my duty as I see it, and leave the rest with God.
- I have endured a great deal of ridicule without much malice; and have received a great deal of kindness, not quite free from ridicule.
- “I am decided . . my path is blazed. The Union and the Constitution shall be preserved and the laws enforced at every and at all hazards.”
- Lincoln said “I planted myself upon the truth and the truth only, so far as I knew it, or could be brought to know it.” 7/18/1858
- Permit me, in the name of the people, to thank you [soldiers] for the part you have taken in this struggle for the life of the nation.
- Lincoln said: Stand with anybody that stands right. Stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong. Good advice.
- I don’t know but that God has created some one man great enough to comprehend the whole of this stupendous crisis . from beginning to end.
- Congress today should heed Lincoln, who said: “I wish at all times in no way to practice any fraud upon the House [of Representatives].”
- When asked about whether or not he would free the slaves, Lincoln said, on 9/13/1862, “Whatever shall appear to be God’s will I will do.”
- Lincoln: I believe the declaration that “all men are created equal” is the great fundamental principle upon which our free institutions rest.
- On slavery L said: The fight must go on. The cause of civil liberty must not be surrendered at the end of one or even one hundred defeats.
- On 8/15/1855 Lincoln said, in regards to slavery, “The problem is too mighty for me. May God, in his mercy, superintend the solution.”
- Lincoln said regarding prayer: I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.
- ‘Take all of this Book [the Bible] upon reason that you can and the balance on faith, and you will live and die a happier and better man.”
- “The purposes of the Almighty are perfect, and must prevail, though we erring mortals may fail to accurately perceive them …” On 9.4.64
- “That I am not a member of any Christian church is true, but I have never denied the truth of the Scriptures.” See http://tinyurl.com/cp8n3x
- Lincoln, when it appeared he might lose the 1864 nomination: “If we do right God will be with us, and if God is with us we cannot fail.”
- Lincoln’s advice “You must remember that some things legally right are not morally right” is good advice for our leaders today.
- “The purposes of the Almighty are perfect, and must prevail, though we erring mortals may fail to accurately perceive them in advance.” 9/64
- Is Lincoln’s faith in God fact or fiction? See http://tinyurl.com/bysdcj
- I just started using Twitter this week. Looking forward to sharing Lincoln’s faith with people. He understood well the sovereignty of God.
- When unsure, he said “I would place my whole reliance in God, knowing that all would go well, and that He would decide for the right.”
- “There is no contending against the will of God; but still there is some difficulty in ascertaining, and applying it, to particular cases.”
More Lincoln Quotes:
“The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.”
“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.”
“The fight must go on. The cause of civil liberty must not be surrendered at the end of one or even one hundred defeats.”
“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.”
“You must remember that some things legally right are not morally right.”
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan–to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations. ” –Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865
“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. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us–that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion–that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth. ” –Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863
“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.”
“The fight must go on. The cause of civil liberty must not be surrendered at the end of one or even one hundred defeats.”
“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.”
“You must remember that some things legally right are not morally right.”
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan–to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations. ” –Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865
“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. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us–that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion–that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth. ” –Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863
Another Important Source of Lincoln Quotes:
Go to the Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln for a reliable source of many (but not all!) Abraham Lincoln quotes. Additionally, here are more useful links for the study of Abraham Lincoln and the American Civil War:
Abraham Lincoln Institute
Abraham Lincoln Research Site
Lesson Plan of the Civil War
Historyplace
Library of Congress
Abraham Lincoln’s Classroom
The Lincoln Institute
Teacher Oz’s History Site
The Teacher’s Corner
The History Channel
Go to the Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln for a reliable source of many (but not all!) Abraham Lincoln quotes. Additionally, here are more useful links for the study of Abraham Lincoln and the American Civil War:
Abraham Lincoln Institute
Abraham Lincoln Research Site
Lesson Plan of the Civil War
Historyplace
Library of Congress
Abraham Lincoln’s Classroom
The Lincoln Institute
Teacher Oz’s History Site
The Teacher’s Corner
The History Channel