Abraham Lincoln Ad Quotations

I don't s'pose anybody on earth likes gingerbread better'n I do-and gets less'n I do.

His argument is as thin as the homeopathic soup that was made by oiling the shadow of a pigeon that had been starved to death.

Politics, as a trade, finds most and leaves nearly all dishonest.

Anybody will do for you, but not for me.

Adversity does not make us frail; it only shows us how frail we are.

The very spot where grew the bread that formed my bones, I see. How strange, old field, on thee to tread, and feel I'm part of thee.

A new book is like a friend that I have yet to meet

The slave-breeders and slave-traders, are a small, odious and detested class, among you; and yet in politics, they dictate the course of all of you, and are as completely your masters, as you are the master of your own negroes.

When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind, unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and a true maxim, that 'a drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.'

Be not deceived. Revolutions do not go backward.

When I lay down the reins of this administration, I want to have one friend left. And that friend is myself.

We cannot but believe that He who made the world still governs it.

Better to remain silent and thought a fool, than to speak out and confirm that you didn't do the assigned readings before the strategic planning retreat.

The press has no better friend than I am, no one who is more ready to acknowledge . . . its tremendous power for both good and evil.

I certainly know that if the war fails, the administration fails, and that I will be blamed for it, whether I deserve it or not. And I ought to be blamed, if I could do better. You think I could do better; therefore you blame me already. I think I could not do better; therefore I blame you for blaming me.

I have got you together to hear what I have written down. I do not wish your advice about the main matterfor that I have determined for myself.

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

if you want your name to be remembered after your death either do something worth writing or write some thing worth reading

I think that slavery is wrong, morally, socially and politically. I desire that it should be no further spread in these United States, and I should not object if it should gradually terminate in the whole Union.

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.

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.

The leading rule for the lawyer, as for the man of every calling, is diligence.

The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the angels of our nature.

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.

As a general rule, I abstain from reading reports of attacks upon myself, wishing not to be provoked by that to which I cannot properly offer an answer.

No organic law can ever be framed with a provision specifically applicable to every question which may occur in practical administration. .. No foresight can anticipate nor any document of reasonable length contain express provisions for all possible questions.

Get books, sit yourself down anywhere, and go to reading them yourself.

Have I not destroyed my enemy when I have made him into my friend?

A lawyer's time and advice are his(her) stock in trade.

No man is good enough to govern another man without the other's consent.

The Government should create, issue, and circulate all the currency and credits needed to satisfy the spending power of the Government and the buying power of consumers. By the adoption of these principles, the taxpayers will be saved immense sums of interest. Money will cease to be master and become the servant of humanity.

Teach the children so it will not be necessary to teach the adults.

A capacity and taste for reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others.

Dear Sir: Yours of the 24th. asking 'the best mode of obtaining a thorough knowledge of the law' is received. The mode is very simple, though laborious, and tedious. It is only to get the books, and read, and study them carefully. Begin with Blackstone's Commentaries, and after reading it carefully through, say twice, take up Chitty's Pleading, Greenleaf's Evidence, & Story's Equity &c. in succession. Work, work, work, is the main thing.

I will either be America's greatest president or its last.

Nevertheless, amid the greatest difficulties of my Administration, when I could not see any other resort, I would place my whole reliance on God, knowing that all would go well, and that He would decide for the right.

The surest way to reveal one's character is not through adversity but by giving them power.

I have always wanted to deal with everyone I meet candidly and honestly. If I have made any assertion not warranted by facts, and it is pointed out to me, I will withdraw it cheerfully.

I go for all sharing the privileges of the government who assist in bearing its burdens. Consequently I go for admitting all whites to the right of suffrage who pay taxes or bear arms, by no means excluding females.

I never tire of reading Tom Paine.

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

Without the assistance of that Divine Being...I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail.

The money power preys on the nation in times of peace, and conspires against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. It denounces, as public enemies, all who question its methods or throw light upon its crimes.

If I am killed, I can die by once; but to live in constant dread of it, is to die over and over again.

A friend is one who has the same enemies as you have.

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

Be with a leader when he is right, stay with him when he is still right, but, leave him when he is wrong.

Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.

The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present... we must think anew and act anew.

You can have anything you want - if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose.

I am glad to know that there is a system of labor where the laborer can strike if he wants to! I would like to God that such a system prevailed all over the world

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. We here highly resolve that the 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, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Beware of rashness, but with energy, and sleepless vigilance, go forward and give us victories.

Those who are ready to sacrifice freedom for security ultimately will lose both.

If you wish to be a lawyer, attach no consequence to the place you are in, or the person you are with; but get books, sit down anywhere, and go to reading for yourself. That will make a lawyer of you quicker than any other way.

A capacity, and taste, for reading, gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others. It is the key, or one of the keys, to the already solved problems. And not only so. It gives a relish, and facility, for successfully pursuing the [yet] unsolved ones.

Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.

What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.

Let me not be understood as saying that there are no bad laws, nor that grievances may not arise for the redress of which no legal provisions have been made. I mean to say no such thing. But I do mean to say that although bad laws, if they exist, should be repealed as soon as possible, still, while they continue in force, for the sake of example they should be religiously observed.

If you look for the bad in people expecting to find it, you surely will.

It is my ambition and desire to so administer the affairs of the government while I remain President that if at the end I have lost every other Friend on earth I shall at least have one friend remaining and that one shall be down inside me

A house divided against itself cannot stand.

You may fool all the people some of the time, you can even fool some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.

We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, wi

I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors, and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views

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

Your organization will take on the personality of its top leaders

Money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace & conspire against it in times of adversity.

A lawyer's time and advice are his stock in trade

A lawyer's advice is his stock and trade.

An old Dutch farmer, who remarked to a companion once that it was not best to swap horses when crossing a stream.

The Government should create, issue, and circulate all the currency and credits needed to satisfy the spending power of the Government and the buying power of the consumers. By the adoption of these principles, the taxpayers will be saves immense sums of interest. The privilege of creating and issuing money is not only the supreme prerogative of government, but it is the government's greatest creative opportunity.

Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new after all

In law it is good policy never to plead what you need not, lest you oblige yourself to prove what you cannot

The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

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.

'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.

Biographies, as generally written, are not only misleading but false... In most instances, they commemorate a lie and cheat posterity out of the truth.

In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all; and to the young, it comes with bitterest agony because it takes them unawares. I have had experience enough to know what I say.

I go for all sharing the privileges of the government, who assist in bearing its burdens. Consequently, I go for admitting all whites to the right of suffrage, who pay taxes or bear arms (by no means excluding females).

My earlier views at the unsoundness of the Christian scheme of salvation and the human origin of the scriptures, have become clearer and stronger with advancing years and I see no reason for thinking I shall ever change them

If I am killed, I can die but once; but to live in constant dread of it, is to die over and over again

It is not my nature, when I see a people borne down by the weight of their shackles - the oppression of tyranny - to make their life more bitter by heaping upon them greater burdens; but rather would I do all in my power to raise the yoke than to add anything that would tend to crush them.

My old father used to have a saying: If you make a bad bargain, hug it all the tighter

It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces

If you do not like him, let him alone. If God gave him little, that little let him enjoy.