Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
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.
Character is like a tree and reputation its shadow. The shadow is what we think it is and the tree is the real thing.
You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.
Nobody has ever expected me to be president. In my poor, lean lank face nobody has ever seen that any cabbages were sprouting.
In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all; and, to the young, it comes with bitterest agony, because it takes them unawares.
Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed.
I am rather inclined to silence, and whether that be wise or not, it is at least more unusual nowadays to find a man who can hold his tongue than to find one who cannot.
Every blade of grass is a study; and to produce two, where there was but one, is both a profit and a pleasure.
Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other thing.
It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubts.
Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people can be engaged in.
Always bear in mind that your own resolution to success is more important than any other thing.
The highest art is always the most religious, and the greatest artist is always a devout person.
I do the very best I know how - the very best I can and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.
The things I want to know are in books my best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read.
My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.
Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.
I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.
In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free - honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.
When you have got an elephant by the hind legs and he is trying to run away, it's best to let him run.
The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.
If there is anything that a man can do well, I say let him do it. Give him a chance.
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.
If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business.
My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.
Fourscore 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.
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.
My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.
Lets have faith that right makes might and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.
The assertion that 'all men are created equal' was of no practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain and it was placed in the Declaration not for that, but for future use.