Abraham Lincoln is one of the most quoted Americans in history, and also one of the most misquoted. Many popular “Lincoln quotes” online have no source at all. This page only includes lines we could trace to his own speeches, addresses and letters.
Each quote below lists where and when Lincoln said or wrote it, so you can use it in a speech, a school report or a Presidents’ Day post with confidence.
Our editor’s top picks
- “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” — House Divided speech, Springfield, Illinois (1858)
- “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.” — Second Inaugural Address (1865)
- “Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.” — Cooper Union Address (1860)
- “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed, is more important than any other one thing.” — Letter to Isham Reavis (1855)
- “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies.” — First Inaugural Address (1861)
Quotes from the Gettysburg Address (1863)
Delivered November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
- “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.”
- “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.”
- “It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us.”
- “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.”
Quotes from Lincoln’s inaugural addresses
From his First (1861) and Second (1865) Inaugural Addresses in Washington, D.C.
- “Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.” — First Inaugural (1861)
- “The mystic chords of memory … will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.” — First Inaugural (1861)
- “Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God.” — Second Inaugural (1865)
- “To bind up the nation’s wounds.” — Second Inaugural (1865)
Lincoln quotes about freedom and democracy
From speeches, messages to Congress and letters.
- “No man is good enough to govern another man, without that other’s consent.” — Peoria speech (1854)
- “Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it.” — Letter to Henry L. Pierce (1859)
- “I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.” — House Divided speech (1858)
- “In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free.” — Annual Message to Congress (1862)
- “We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.” — Annual Message to Congress (1862)
- “Whenever I hear any one arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.” — Speech to the 140th Indiana Regiment (1865)
Lincoln quotes about leadership and change
Lines about meeting hard moments with fresh thinking.
- “The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present.” — Annual Message to Congress (1862)
- “The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion.” — Annual Message to Congress (1862)
- “As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew.” — Annual Message to Congress (1862)
- “Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history.” — Annual Message to Congress (1862)
- “As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.” — Lyceum Address (1838)
Personal and comforting Lincoln quotes
From letters and farewells that show a gentler side.
- “In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all.” — Letter to Fanny McCullough (1862)
- “You are sure to be happy again.” — Letter to Fanny McCullough (1862)
- “To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe every thing.” — Farewell Address at Springfield (1861)
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How we put this list together: Every quote was checked against Lincoln’s published speeches, addresses and letters. We left out popular lines that cannot be traced to a reliable original source. Written and reviewed by John Moler, editor at Graceful Names. See our editorial policy.