“He only has the right to criticize who has the heart to help.”
Original quote from William Penn (1693): They have a Right to censure, that have a Heart to help: The rest is Cruelty, not Justice.
Misattributed
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
Variante: If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six hours sharpening my ax.
“I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.”
Attributed to Lincoln in Mark Gold (1998), Animal century . Also attributed to Rowland Hill in Henry Woodcock (1879), Wonders of Grace
Misattributed
“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”
Quoted in Vernon K. McLellan (2000) Wise Words and Quotes
Misattributed
“I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.”
Included in Portrait-Life of Lincoln (1910) by Francis T Miller
Posthumous attributions
“The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is why he made so many of them.”
Conversation with private secretary John Hay (23 December 1863), describing a dream Lincoln had that evening, in Abraham Lincoln : A History (1890) by John Hay
Posthumous attributions
“You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.”
Quoted in Herbert V. Prochnow (1955), Speaker's Book of Epigrams and Witticisms
Misattributed
“If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.”
Attributed in Evan Esar (1949), The Dictionary of Humorous Quotations
Misattributed
“The better part of one's life consists of his friendships.”
Letter to Joseph Gillespie http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/lincoln2/1:88.1?rgn=div2;view=fulltext (13 July 1849)
1840s
“I am not concerned that you fall; I am concerned that you arise.”
Attributed in Deborah Gillan Straub (1996), Native North American Voices
Misattributed
Misattributed to Lincoln by several authors since about 2000. Source of quote: General Douglas MacArthur is quoted as saying, "Like Abraham Lincoln, I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts" (John Gunther, The Riddle of MacArthur, New York: Harper, 1950, p. 61). By the 1970s, the phrase is quoted in several places without the words "Like Abraham Lincoln," and attributed directly to Lincoln. The additional phrase "and beer" first appears in a list of jokes published online in 1999.
Misattributed
“I don't know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.”
As quoted in The Early Life of Abraham Lincoln (1896) by Ida Tarbell
Posthumous attributions
Speech of the Sub-Treasury (1839), Collected Works 1:178 http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=lincoln;cc=lincoln;view=text;idno=lincoln1;rgn=div1;node=lincoln1:193
Variant (misspelling): The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just; and it shall not deter me.
1830s
Contexto: Broken by it, I, too, may be; bow to it I never will. The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just; it shall not deter me.