8 Abraham Lincoln Quotes on Character

Abraham Lincoln quotes on character

115. If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?

117. It's my experience that folks who have no vices have generally very few virtues.

121. Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

124. Perhaps a man's character is like a tree, and his reputation like its character: the shadow is what we think of it, the tree is the real thing.

136. I believe, if we take habitual drunkards as a class, their heads and their hearts will bear an advantageous comparison with those of any other class. There seems ever to have been a proneness in the brilliant and warm-blooded to fall into this vice.

142. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help small men by tearing down big men. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatreds. You cannot establish security on borrowed money. You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.

151. Abraham Lincoln had a moral elevation most rare in a statesman, or indeed in any man.

162. He has a face like a hoosier Michael Angelo, so awful ugly it becomes beautiful, with its strange mouth, its deep-cut, criss-cross lines, and its doughnut complexion.