Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States and is regarded as one of America’s greatest heroes due to his role as saviour of the Union and emancipator of enslaved people. His rise from humble beginnings to achieving the highest office in the land is a remarkable story. 

     Lincoln was assassinated at a time when his country needed him to complete the great task of reunifying the nation. His eloquent support of democracy and insistence that the Union was worth saving embody the ideals of self-government that all nations strive to achieve. Lincoln’s distinctively humane personality and incredible impact on the nation have endowed him with an enduring legacy.

      Lincoln served a single term in the U.S.  from 1847 to 1849. His foray into national politics seemed to be as unremarkable as it was brief. He was the lone Whig from the state of Illinois, showing party loyalty, but finding few political allies. 

      Lincoln used his term in office to speak out against the Mexican-American War and supported Zachary Taylor for president in 1848. His criticism of the war made him unpopular back home and he decided not to run for second term, but instead returned to Springfield to practice law.

By the 1850s, the railroad industry was moving west and Illinois found itself becoming a major hub for various companies. Lincoln served as a lobbyist for the Illinois Central Railroad as its company attorney. 

Success in several court cases brought other business clients as well — banks, insurance companies and manufacturing firms. Lincoln also worked in some criminal trials. 

In one case, a witness claimed that he could identify Lincoln’s client who was accused of murder, because of the intense light from a full moon. Lincoln referred to an almanac and proved that the night in question had been too dark for the witness to see anything clearly. His client was acquitted.

Team Inspiring Life provides you with 31 quotes by Abraham Lincoln.

31 quotes by Abraham Lincoln.

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

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.

Human action can be modified to some extent, but human nature cannot be changed.

Love is the chain to lock a child to its parent.

My experience has taught me that a man who has no vices has damned few virtues.

And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.

I will prepare and someday my chance will come.

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

You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.

People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.

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

 When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion.

Everybody likes a compliment.

My best friend is a person who will give me a book I have not read.

Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.

He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.

 For people who like that kind of a book that is the kind of book they will like.

 I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.

When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.

Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done today.

Every man’s happiness is his own responsibility.

I would rather be a little nobody, then to be an evil somebody.

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

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.

Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed.

I cannot make it better known than it already is that I strongly favour colonization.

   Whatever you are, be a good one.

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

 I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have.

The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.