Abraham Lincoln on Business Quotes

"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."

"Extemporaneous speaking should be practiced and cultivated. It is the lawyer's avenue to the public."

"Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser."

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

"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master."

"Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."

"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. I do the very best I know how — the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what's said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference. As quoted in The Life and Public Service of Abraham Lincoln (1865) by Henry J. Raymond"

"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection."

"The man who does not make mistakes does not usually make anything."

"I shall do nothing in malice. What I deal with is too vast for malicious dealing."

"I don't think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday."

"Work, work, work, is the main thing."

"Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition."

"He who does not help himself, will find no help from others."

"Wealth is a superfluity of what we don't need."

"The prudent, penniless beginner in the world labors for wages awhile, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for himself."

"The leading rule for the lawyer, as for the man of every other calling, is diligence. Leave nothing for to-morrow which can be done to-day. Never let your correspondence fall behind. Whatever piece of business you have in hand, before stopping, do all the labor pertaining to it which can then be done. Fragment, Notes for a Law Lecture (1 July 1850), cited in Abraham Lincoln: Complete Works, Comprising his Speeches, Letters, State Papers, and Miscellaneous Writings, Vol. 2 (1894)"

"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present."

"I am a slow walker, but I never walk backwards."

"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis."

"I should be very happy to learn that I could be of any use in helping you to a situation."

"Let no young man choosing the law for a calling for a moment yield to the popular belief—resolve to be honest."

"I happen temporarily to occupy this big White House. I am living witness that any one of your children may look to come here."

"In all that the people can individually do as well for themselves, government ought not to interfere."

"We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country."

"Resolve to be honest at all events; and if in your own judgment you cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without being a lawyer."

"Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country."

"All my life I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever the flower would grow in thought and mind."

"Truth is generally the best vindication against slander."

"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."

"If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it."

"Property is the fruit of labor; property is desirable; it is a positive good in the world."

"The matter of fees is important, far beyond the mere question of bread and butter."