Abraham Lincoln

1809 - 1865

A Lifetime of Persistence

Age Challenge

22 Failed in business.
23 Defeated for Legislature.
24 Failed again in business.
25 Elected to Legislature.
26 Sweetheart died.
27 Had a nervous breakdown.
29 Defeated for Speaker.
31 Defeated for Elector.
34 Defeated for Congress.
37 Elected to Congress.
39 Defeated for Congress.
46 Defeated for Senate.
47 Defeated for Vice President.
49 Defeated for Senate
51 Elected President of the United States

Honor is better than honors.

The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is why he made so many of them.

Die when I may, I want it said of me by those who know me best, that I have always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.

No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent.

I am a slow walker, but I never walk backward.

A ballot is stronger than the bullet.

My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.

A house divided against itself cannot stand.

Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored.

Property is the fruit of labor; property is desirable; it is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich and, hence, is just encouragement to industry and enterprise.

You can’t escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.

That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

With malice toward none; with charity for all.

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.

Recommended Readings:
Life of Abraham Lincoln, 1865
Life of Lincoln, 1889

Recommended Resources:
The White House