Abraham Lincoln possessed a rare genius that allowed him to understand people and situations more thoroughly than just about any of contemporaries. His remarks in a variety of circumstances—at once folksy, humorous and profound—struck observers as so extraordinary that they have been preserved for us as testament to his wisdom and uncanny ability to explain complicated things in a down to earth way. We have included here just a few of our favorite of the hundreds of Lincoln quotes that we believe illuminate the character, personality, and vision which helped shape our memory of an age.
First, the downright funny:
“The trouble with Pope is that he’s got his headquarters where his hindquarters ought to be.”
After receiving a dispatch from Gen. John Pope addressed from “headquarters in the saddle.”
“One war at a time.”
In cautioning Secretary of State William H. Seward during a diplomatic crisis with Great Britain during the war
“You are green, it is true; but they are green also. You are all green alike.”
In response to a message from Irvin McDowell shortly before the first battle of Manassas
“If General McClellan isn’t going to use his army, I’d like to borrow it for a time.”
In exasperation of McClellan’s inaction
“Tell me what brand of whiskey that Grant drinks. I would like to send a barrel of it to my other generals”
In response to charges that Grant was a drunk.
The Iconic
“I can’t spare this man—he fights.”
In evaluating Gen. Grant
“My God! My God! What will the country say?”
After receiving news of Hooker’s defeat at Chancellorsville.
“Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.”
In a March 1865 speech to soldiers
“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt”
Attributed to Lincoln
Finally, the Poignant
“The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
From President Lincoln’s first inaugural address
JMB/CPW
The Historians Manifesto 
“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt”
This is one of my all-time favorite quotes. That and the Eleanor Roosevelt one “You can’t always control what happens to you, but you can always control how you react to it.”
Great list! I love Abe and there are a few one here I’d never seen before. Thanks!
Thanks!
Regarding the hindquarters quote, was it Hooker or Pope?
I think we have, a typo…it was Pope! Thanks.
Lee, not Lincoln, made the joke, Pope denied having said it. All doubt removed.