Abraham Lincoln Quotes

“In 1848, the 39-year-old Lincoln offered some sage advice to his law partner, William H. Herndon, who had complained that he and other young Whigs were being discriminated against by older Whigs. In denying the allegation, Lincoln urged him to avoid thinking of himself as a victim: “The way for a young man to rise, is to improve himself every way he can, never suspecting that any body wishes to hinder him. Allow me to assure you, that suspicion and jealousy never did help any man in any situation. There may sometimes be ungenerous attempts to keep a young man down; and they will succeed too, if he allows his mind to be diverted from its true channel to brood over the attempted injury. Cast about, and see if this feeling has not injured every person you have ever known to fall into it.”1”
― Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life

“sartorial insouciance,”
― Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life

“Lincoln, unlike many executives, had no fear of surrounding himself with strong-willed subordinates who might overshadow him. When advised not to appoint Salmon P. Chase to a cabinet post because the Ohioan regarded himself as “a great deal bigger” than the president-elect, Lincoln asked: “Well, do you know of any other men who think they are bigger than I am? I want to put them all in my cabinet.”5 He included every major competitor at the Chicago Convention in his cabinet, a decision that required unusual self-confidence, a quality misunderstood by some, including his assistant personal secretary, John Hay. Deeming modesty “the most fatal and most unsympathetic of vices” and the “bane of genius, the chain-and-ball of enterprise,” Hay argued that it was “absurd to call him a modest man.”6 But Hay was projecting onto his boss his own immodesty. Lincoln was, in fact, both remarkably modest and self-confident, and he had no need to surround himself with sycophants dependent on him for political preferment. Instead he chose men with strong personalities, large egos, and politically significant followings whose support was necessary for the administration’s success.”
― Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life

“Uncle Abe, I didn’t vote for yer, but I am mighty glad yer elected just the same.” Lincoln responded, “Well, my old friend, when a man has been tried and pronounced not guilty he hasn’t any right to find fault with the jury.”
― Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life

“Lincoln agreed, but added that “books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new, after all.”
― Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life

“What kills the skunk is the publicity it gives itself. What a skunk wants to do is to keep snug under the barn—in the day-time, when men are around with shot-guns.”
― Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life

“But I can not doubt either that it will come in due time. Even in this view, I am proud, in my passing speck of time, to contribute an humble mite to that glorious consummation, which my own poor eyes may not last to see.”336”
― Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life

“Nevertheless, some Republicans were nervous about the debates. The unpopularity of Lincoln’s stands on the Mexican War and on racial issues, along with the opposition of prominent Eastern Republicans like Horace Greeley, whose New York Tribune was widely read in Illinois, boded ill. Shortly before the debates began, Lincoln asked Hiram W. Beckwith of Danville how the party leaders in his area felt. When told that they anticipated the contest “with deep concern,” Lincoln at first looked pained but quickly changed his expression as he described two men about to fight: “one of them brags about what he means to do. He jumps high in the air, cracking his heels together, smites his fists, and wastes his breath trying to scare somebody.” The “other fellow, he says not a word.” His “arms are at his side, his fists are closely doubled up, his head is drawn to the shoulder, and his teeth are set firm together. He is saving his wind for the fight, and as sure as it comes off he will win it, or die a-trying.”
― Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life

“Throughout the country, eyes turned to Ottawa, where the candidates would inaugurate what one Illinois abolitionist regarded as “a contest for the advancement of the kingdom of Heaven or the kingdom of Satan—a contest for an advance or a retrograde in civilization.”263 The New York Times prophetically remarked: “The battle must be close, severe, and doubtful. That it will be well fought is certain, and its results will be both important and memorable.”264”
― Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life

“Let us discard all these things, and unite as one people throughout this land, until we shall once more stand up declaring that all men are created equal.”157”
― Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life

“(Webster had begun his famous address thus: “When the mariner has been tossed for many days in thick weather, and on an unknown sea, he naturally avails himself of the first pause in the storm, the earliest glance of the sun, to take his latitude, and ascertain how far the elements have driven him from his true course. Let us imitate this prudence, and, before we float farther on the waves of this debate, refer to the point from which we departed, that we may at least be able to conjecture where we now are.”)”
― Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life

“This trip to Niagara was the family’s second; the first had occurred nine years earlier, when Lincoln returned home from his Massachusetts campaign swing. The majesty of the falls inspired him to meditate on “the indefinite past.” He marveled that when “Columbus first sought this continent—when Christ suffered on the cross—when Moses led Israel through the Red-Sea—nay, even, when Adam first came from the hand of his Maker—then as now, Niagara was roaring here.” Mastodons and mammoths, “now so long dead, that fragments of their monstrous bones, alone testify, that they ever lived, have gazed on Niagara. In that long—long time, never still for a single moment. Never dried, never froze, never slept, never rested.”
― Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life

“In some men, the painful questioning that often occurs at midlife can lead to despair; in others, it produces stagnation. But it can also be a creative, if turbulent, period during which inner psychological growth takes place and leads to profound maturity. Out of the crucible of midlife introspection can emerge an awareness of one’s own identity and uniqueness that breeds self-confidence and inspires confidence in others. A hallmark of such psychological progress is an ability to overcome egotism, to avoid taking things personally, to accept one’s shortcomings and those of others with equanimity, to let go of things appropriate for youth and accept gladly the advantages and disadvantages of age. People able to meet these challenges successfully radiate a kind of psychological wholeness and rootedness that commands respect.”
― Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life

“In 1855, he remarked “with much feeling” that “men are greedy to publish the success of [their] efforts, but meanly shy as to publishing the failures of men. Men are ruined by this one sided practice of concealment of blunders and failures.”242”
― Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life

“Introspection of this sort is often triggered by a sense of failure,”
― Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life

“Between 1849 and 1854, while sitting on the political sidelines and devoting himself outwardly to the practice of law, Lincoln inwardly was undergoing a profound transformation, successfully wrestling with the challenges of midlife. Little documentation of his inner life survives; he kept no diary, seldom wrote revealing personal letters, and confided few of his innermost thoughts to anyone. Yet he was clearly trying to come to grips with the questions that many men address, consciously or unconsciously, as they pass from the first half of life to the second half during their early forties: What do I really want from life? Is the structure of my life so far truly satisfactory? What kind of legacy do I wish to leave? Have I paid too much attention to the demands of the outer world and conformed too much to its pressures? What do I hope to accomplish with the rest of my days? What do I really care about most? What are my basic beliefs? How have I failed to live up to the dream I formed many years ago? How can I realistically modify that dream? Have I suppressed parts of my personality that now need to be developed? How shall I deal with the uglier aspects of my personality? How have I behaved in a destructive fashion, and how have I in turn been affected by the destructiveness of others? Have I chosen the right career and the right spouse?”
― Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life

“then stop one moment and ask yourself: What is justice in this case? and let that sense of justice be your decision. Law is nothing else but the best reason of wise men applied for ages to the transactions and business of mankind.”208 This approach to the law also characterized his approach to governing, as he repeatedly showed during his presidency.”
― Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life

“Tell the Judge that I can’t come—my hands are dirty & I came over to clean them.’ ” When he received this news, Davis dismissed the suit, merely remarking: “Honest Abe.”
― Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life

“Lincoln responded with paternal wisdom, urging him not to wallow in jealousy, suspicion, or a feeling of victimhood: “The way for a young man to rise, is to improve himself every way he can, never suspecting that any body wishes to hinder him. Allow me to assure you, that suspicion and jealousy never did help any man in any situation. There may sometimes be ungenerous attempts to keep a young man down; and they will succeed too, if he allows his mind to be diverted from its true channel to brood over the attempted injury. Cast about, and see if this feeling has not injured every person you have ever known to fall into it.”
― Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life

“William Knox’s “Mortality.”
― Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life

“Life at the boardinghouse worsened after August 1, 1843, when Robert Todd Lincoln was born. (That day Lincoln jestingly told a friend that he had worried that the infant “might have one of my long legs and one of Mary’s short ones, and he’d have a terrible time getting through the world.”)”
― Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life

“he whose wisdom surpasses that of all philosophers has declared that ‘a house divided against itself cannot stand.’ ”15”
― Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life

“Lincoln told Chauncey Depew the story of a farmer who consulted him about obtaining a divorce after he and his wife had quarreled over the color to paint their new house. His client explained, “I wanted it painted white like our neighbors’, but my wife preferred brown. Our disputes finally became quarrels. She has broken crockery, throwing it at my head, and poured scalding tea down my back, and I want a divorce.” Lincoln urged the couple to compromise their differences for the sake of their children. A month later the farmer reported that he and his wife had reached a compromise: “we are going to paint the house brown.”344 Lincoln was fond of quoting from his favorite poet, Robert Burns, these lines: “Sic a wife as Willie had, / I would no gie a button for her.”345”
― Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life

“The way for a young man to rise, is to improve himself every way he can, never suspecting that any body wishes to hinder him. Allow me to assure you, that suspicion and jealousy never did help any man in any situation. There may sometimes be ungenerous attempts to keep a young man down; and they will succeed too, if he allows his mind to be diverted from its true channel to brood over the attempted injury. Cast about, and see if this feeling has not injured every person you have ever known to fall into it.”1”
― Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life

“William Cowper’s poem, “On Receipt of My Mother’s Picture” and marked one stanza that may well have reminded him of Nancy Hanks Lincoln: Oh that those lips had language! Life has pass’d With me but roughly since I heard thee last. Those lips are thine—thy own sweet smile I see, The same that oft in childhood solaced me.”
― Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life

“Lincoln’s description of his aristocratic grandsire represents a variation of the “family romance” phenomenon, which causes some children to speculate that they are actually the offspring of more distinguished parents than the ones who raised them. Most people outgrow these fantasies, but some adults—including exceptional people or men with very distant fathers—tend to maintain an unusually strong sense of family romance throughout life. Lincoln fits this category on both counts, for he was truly exceptional and had a distant relationship with his father.”
― Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life

“No man resolved to make the most of himself, can spare time for personal contention. Still less can he afford to take all the consequences, including the vitiating of his temper, and the loss of self-control. Yield larger things to which you can show no more than equal right; and yield lesser ones, though clearly your own. Better give your path to a dog, than be bitten by him in contesting for the right. Even killing the dog would not cure the bite.”
― Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life

“No man resolved to make the most of himself, can spare time for personal contention. Still less can he afford to take all the consequences, including the vitiating of his temper, and the loss of self-control.”
― Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life

“Character is destiny, and Lincoln’s remarkable character helped make him not only a successful president but also a model which can be profitably emulated by all. Somehow he managed to be strong-willed without being willful, righteous without being self-righteous, and moral without being moralistic.”
― Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life

“As central themes this work argues that Lincoln’s leadership proved to be the North’s secret weapon in winning the Civil War; that Lincoln was an effective leader because he achieved a level of psychological maturity unmatched in the history of American public life; and that such a high level of consciousness was acquired slowly and painfully as he overcame the economic and emotional poverty of his childhood.”
― Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life