The Lincoln Year Book: Axioms and Aphorisms from the Great Emancipator

Abraham Lincoln

The Lincoln Year Book: Axioms and Aphorisms from the Great Emancipator

JANUARY

The dogmas of the past are inadequate to the stormy present.

FIRST

Always do the very best you can.

SECOND

If our sense of duty forbids, then let us stand by our sense of duty.

THIRD

It's no use to be always looking up these hard spots.

FOURTH

All I am in the world, I owe to the opinion of me which the people express when they call me "Honest Old Abe."

FIFTH

The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself in every way he can, never suspecting that anybody is hindering him.

SIXTH

No one has needed favors more than I.

SEVENTH

Whatever is calculated to improve the condition of the honest, struggling laboring man, I am for that thing.

EIGHTH

All we want is time and patience.

NINTH

I esteem foreigners as no better than other people – nor any worse.

TENTH

My experience and observation have been that those who promise the most do the least.

ELEVENTH

I didn't know anything about it, but I thought you knew your own business best.

TWELFTH

If I send a man to buy a horse for me, I expect him to tell me his points – not how many hairs there are in his tail.

THIRTEENTH

You must act.

FOURTEENTH

I will try, and do the best I can.

FIFTEENTH

His attitude is such that, in the very selfishness of his nature, he can not but work to be successful!

SIXTEENTH

Afford all an unfettered start and a fair chance in the race of life.

SEVENTEENTH

I want Christians to pray for me; I need their prayers.

EIGHTEENTH

The young men must not be permitted to drift away.

NINETEENTH

The free institutions we enjoy have developed the powers and improved the condition of the whole people beyond any example in the world.

TWENTIETH

I shall do nothing in malice.

TWENTY-FIRST

Good men do not agree.

TWENTY-SECOND

I shall, to the best of my ability, repel force by force.

TWENTY-THIRD

Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors of bullets.

TWENTY-FOURTH

I never thought he had more than average ability when we were young men together. But, then, I suppose he thought just the same about me.

TWENTY-FIFTH

Moral cowardice is something which I think I never had.

TWENTY-SIXTH

The patriotic instinct of plain people.

TWENTY-SEVENTH

The face of an old friend is like a ray of sunshine through dark and gloomy clouds.

TWENTY-EIGHTH

Will anybody do your work for you?

TWENTY-NINTH

My rightful masters, the American people.

THIRTIETH

Should any one in any case be content that his oath shall go unkept on a merely unsubstantial controversy as to how it shall be kept?

THIRTY-FIRST

The value of life is to improve one's condition.

FEBRUARY

Let none falter who thinks he is right, and we may succeed.

FIRST

Labor is like any other commodity in the market – increase the demand for it and you increase the price of it.

SECOND

When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees.

THIRD

I say "try," for if we never try, we never succeed.

FOURTH

The pioneer in any movement is not generally the best man to bring that movement to a successful issue.

FIFTH

Defeat and failure make everything seem wrong.

SIXTH

This nation cannot live on injustice.

SEVENTH

Something had to be done, and, as there does not appear to be any one else to do it, I did it.

EIGHTH

Poor parsons seem always to have large families.

NINTH

If it be true that the Lord has appointed me to do the work you have indicated, is it not probable that he would have communicated knowledge of the fact to me as well as to you?

TENTH

I trust I shall be willing to do my duty, though it costs my life.

ELEVENTH

I hope peace will come soon, and come to stay; and so come as to be worth the keeping in all future time.

TWELFTH

What there is of me is self-made.

THIRTEENTH

I was young once, and I am sure I was never ungenerously thrust back.

FOURTEENTH

Thank God for not making me a woman, but if He had, I suppose He would have made me just as ugly as He did, and no one would ever have tempted me.

FIFTEENTH

You may say anything you like about me, – if that will help.

SIXTEENTH

No men living are more worthy to be trusted than those who toil up from poverty – none less inclined to take, or touch, aught which they have not honestly earned.

SEVENTEENTH

As our case is new, so we must think anew.

EIGHTEENTH

I shall do less whenever I believe what I am doing hurts the cause; and I shall do more whenever I believe doing more helps the cause.

NINETEENTH

No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us.

TWENTIETH

If I can learn God's will, I will do it.

TWENTY-FIRST

It is the nature of the case, and no one is to blame.

TWENTY-SECOND

Tell the whole truth.

TWENTY-THIRD

He sticks through thick and thin, – I admire such a man.

TWENTY-FOURTH

If by the mere force of numbers a majority should deprive a minority of any constitutional right, it might in a moral point of view justify revolution, – certainly would if such right were a vital one.

TWENTY-FIFTH

My hand was tired; but my resolution was firm.

TWENTY-SIXTH

It is a difficult role, and so much the greater will be the honor if you perform it well.

TWENTY-SEVENTH

I shall write my papers myself. The people will understand them.

TWENTY-EIGHTH

Though much provoked, let us do nothing through passion and ill-temper.

TWENTY-NINTH

Have confidence in yourself, a valuable if not indispensable quality.

MARCH

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it.

FIRST

Twenty thousand is as much as any man ought to want.

SECOND

By general law, life and limb must be protected; yet often a limb must be amputated to save a life; but a life is never given merely to save a limb.

THIRD

Trust to the good sense of the American people.

FOURTH

Let us judge not, that we be not judged.

FIFTH

Put the foot down firmly.

SIXTH

The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise to the occasion.

SEVENTH

I bring a heart true to the work.

EIGHTH

The people will save their government, if the government itself will do its part only indifferently well.

NINTH

Most certainly I intend no injustice to any one, and if I have done any I deeply regret it.

TENTH

With firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right.

ELEVENTH

Action in the crisis of a nation must accord with its necessities, and therefore can seldom be confined to precedent.

TWELFTH

You can't put a long sword in a short scabbard.

THIRTEENTH

"I have made it a rule of my life," said the old parson, "not to cross Fox River until I get to it."

FOURTEENTH

It is sometimes well to be humble.

FIFTEENTH

Don't let joy carry you into excesses.

SIXTEENTH

Liberty is your birthright.

SEVENTEENTH

If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must, or government will cease.

EIGHTEENTH

Learn the laws and obey them.

NINETEENTH

It is easy to conceive that all these shades of opinion, and even more, may be sincerely entertained by honest and truthful men.

TWENTIETH

It is better only sometimes to be right than at all times wrong.

TWENTY-FIRST

When you have an elephant on hand, and he wants to run away, better let him run.

TWENTY-SECOND

Whatever God designs, He will do for me yet.

TWENTY-THIRD

Quarrel not at all.

TWENTY-FOURTH

Let no opportunity of making a mark escape.

TWENTY-FIFTH

I want in all cases to do right; and most particularly so in all cases with women.

TWENTY-SIXTH

I should rejoice to be spared the labor of a contest, but being in I shall go it thoroughly.

TWENTY-SEVENTH

I intend discourtesy to no one.

TWENTY-EIGHTH

The doctrine of self-government is right – absolutely and eternally right.

TWENTY-NINTH

This government is expressly charged with the duty of providing for the general welfare.

THIRTIETH

We are not bound to follow implicitly in whatever our fathers did. To do so would be to reject all progress, all improvement.

THIRTY-FIRST

Understanding the spirit of our institutions to aim at the elevation of men, I am opposed to whatever tends to degrade them.

APRIL

The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause which we deem to be just.

FIRST

You can fool some of the people all of the time, or all of the people some of the time; but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.

SECOND

He has abundant talents – quite enough to occupy all his time without devoting any to temper.

THIRD

I do not argue – I beseech you to make the argument for yourself.

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