Abraham Lincoln

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 savior of the Union and emancipator of slaves. 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.

Second Inaugural Speech

“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; to bind up the nation’s wounds…. ”

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

“The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer, a cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticize work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life's realities—all these are marks, not ... of superiority but of weakness.”

— Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President

"A house divided against itself cannot stand."

"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 ... It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—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."

— Abraham Lincoln, 16th Present

"Books are the quietest and most constant of friends, and the most patient of teachers."

— Charles Eliot, educator

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit."

"There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing."

"First, have a definite, clear, and practical ideal, a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end."

— Aristotle, philosopher, teacher of Alexander the Great

"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light."

— Plato, philosopher, teacher of Aristotle

"An unexamined life is not worth living."

— Socrates, philosopher, teacher of Plato

"Our greatest achievement is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall."

— Confucius, philosopher

"Ask and it shall be given to you: search and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you."

— Jesus, religious leader

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

— Philippians 4:13

"The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be."

—Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer

"Success is the 1% of your work which results from the 99% that is called failure."

— Soichiro Honda, entrepreneur

"I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do."

—Leonardo da Vinci, inventor and philosopher

"The secret of success is making your vocation your vacation."

— Mark Twain, writer

"For what itʼs worth: itʼs never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. Thereʼs no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life youʼre proud of. If you find that youʼre not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again."

— F. Scott Fitzgerald, writer

"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."

— Edmund Burke, philosopher

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait to start improving the world."

— Anne Frank, Holocaust victim

"Open-mindedness is not the same as empty-mindedness"

— John Dewey, educator

"Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right."

— Henry Ford, entrepreneur

"Eighty percent of success is showing up."

— Woody Allen, actor

"Iʼve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

—Maya Angelou, writer

"Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.”

—Vince Lombardi, coach

"Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you."

"What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?"

— Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President

"All great things are simple and many can be expressed in single words: Freedom, Justice, Honor, Duty, Mercy, and Hope."

"History will be kind to me for I intend to write it."

— Winston Churchill, English Prime Minister

"I have a dream that ... one day we will live in a nation where we will not be judged by the color of our skin but by the content of our character."

"We are not makers of history. We are made by history."

— Martin Luther King Jr. Civil Rights Leader

"Historical knowledge is indispensable for those who want to build a better world."

— Ludwig Von Mises, historian

"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."

"Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value."

— Albert Einstein, scientist

"We are given two ears and one mouth so that we may listen twice as much as we speak."

— Epictetus, philosopher