Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) is often quoted for having said, “If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six sharpening my axe.” The hours vary (usually it’s given as either eight or six hours), but the meaning is that one should spend more time in preparation. The saying is similar to the proverb of “measure twice, cut once.”

“If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six sharpening my ax” was cited in print in 1983. Motivational speaker Zig Ziglar wrote in 1984 that Lincoln’s statement was “If I had nine hours to cut down a tree, I would spend six hours sharpening my axe.” Citations of the supposed Lincoln quotation before the 1980s have not been found.


Google Books
Creating Wealth
By Robert G. Allen
New York, NY: Simon and Schuster
1983
Pg. 295:
If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six sharpening my ax.
— ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Google Books
Zig Ziglar’s Secrets of Closing the Sale
By Zig Ziglar
New York, NY: Berkley Books
1984
Pg. 252:
This supports Abraham Lincoln’s statement “If I had nine hours to cut down a tree, I would spend six hours sharpening my axe.”

Google Books‘
Extraordinary Investments for Ordinary Investors:
Choosing the Best from the New Money Packages
By Wayne F. Nelson
New York, NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
1984
Pg. 185:
Abraham Lincoln said, “If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six sharpening my ax.”

Google Books
Project Management For Dummies
By Nick Graham and Stanley Portny
Hoboken, NJ: Wiley
2010
Pg. ?:
US president Abraham Lincoln put it well when he said: ‘Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.’

Google Books
Lincoln’s Quotes and My Limericks
By Thomas R. Wallin
Xlibris Corporation (Xlibris.com)
2010
Pg. 62:
Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.
(If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six hours sharpening my ax.)

Just like...measure twice and cut once…
Or a stitch in time saves nine…
Planning and preparation, even in a crunch,
Will always save time.

Google Books
The Basics of Hacking and Penetration Testing:
Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing Made Easy
By Patrick Engebretson
Waltham, MA: Elsevier Inc.
2011
Pg. 16:
The guys who created Backtrack Linux are fond of quoting Abraham Lincoln who said, “If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first four of them sharpening my axe.”