Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change public opinion, can change the government, practically just so much.
This human struggle and scramble for office, for a way to live without work, will finally test the strength of our institutions.
The sense of obligation to continue is present in all of us. A duty to strive is the duty of us all. I felt a call to that duty.
Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.
in times like the present, men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be responsible through time and eternity.
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
Being elected to Congress, though I am very grateful to our friends for having done it, has not pleased me as much as I expected.
A man has not the time to spend half his life in quarrels. If any man ceases to attack me, I never remember the past against him.
If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business.
I do not think I could myself be brought to support a man for office whom I knew to be an open enemy of, and scoffer at, religion.
These men ask for just the same thing, fairness, and fairness only. This, so far as in my power, they, and all others, shall have.
It has long been recognized that the problems with alcohol relate not to the use of a bad thing, but to the abuse of a good thing.
If there is anything that links the human to the divine, it is the courage to stand by a principle when everybody else rejects it.
I shall be most happy indeed if I shall be an humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty, and of this his almost chosen people.
If I had my way, this war would never have been commenced. If I had been allowed my way this war would have been ended before this.
I am like a man so busy in letting rooms in one end of his house, that he can't stop to put out the fire that is burning the other.
If the people of Utah shall peacefully form a State Constitution tolerating polygamy, will the Democracy admit them into the Union?
I am struggling to maintain the government, not to overthrow it. I am struggling especially to prevent others from overthrowing it.
Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world?
You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
An inspection of the Constitution will show that the right of property in a slave in not "distinctly and expressly affirmed" in it.
Among the friends of Union, there is great diversity of sentiment and of policy in regard to slavery and the African race among us.
If all do not join now to save the good old ship of the Union this voyage nobody will have a chance to pilot her on another voyage.
God bless the Methodist Church - bless all the churches - and blessed be God, Who, in this our great trial, giveth us the churches.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.
Did Stanton say I was a damned fool? Then I dare say I must be one, for Stanton is generally right and he always says what he means.
The very spot where grew the bread that formed my bones, I see. How strange, old field, on thee to tread, and feel I'm part of thee.
I do not think I could myself, be brought to support a man for office, whom I knew to be an open enemy of, and scoffer at, religion.
No man has a right to judge Andrew Johnson in any respect who has not suffered as much and done as much as he for the Nation's sake.
Nobody has ever expected me to be President. In my poor, lean, lank face, nobody has ever seen that any cabbages were sprouting out.
I believe the declaration that ‘all men are created equal’ is the great fundamental principle upon which our free institutions rest.
Friends, I agree with you in Providence; but I believe in the Providence of the most men, the largest purse, and the longest cannon.
The press has no better friend than I am, no one who is more ready to acknowledge . . . its tremendous power for both good and evil.
You already know I desire that neither Father or Mother shall be in want of any comfort either in health or sickness while they live.
The purposes of the Almighty are perfect, and must prevail, though we erring mortals may fail to accurately perceive them in advance.
As a nation we began by declaring that all me are created equal. We now practically read it, all men are created equal except Negroes.
I wish all men to be free. I wish the material prosperity of the already free which I feel sure the extinction of slavery would bring.
Let there be no compromise on the question of extending slavery. If there be, all our labor is lost, and, ere long, must be done again.
You dislike the emancipation proclamation; and, perhaps, would have it retracted. You say it is unconstitutional - I think differently.
I believe it is universally understood and acknowledged that all men will ever act correctly, unless they have a motive to do otherwise.
No country can sustain, in idleness, more than a small percentage of its numbers. The great majority must labor at something productive.
It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
As to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would call it a piece of silly affectation if I were to begin it now?
I have stepped out upon this platform that I may see you and that you may see me, and in the arrangement I have the best of the bargain.
Well, I wish some of you would tell me the brand of whiskey that Grant drinks. I would like to send a barrel of it to my other generals.
I think that God means that we shall do more than we have yet done in furtherance of his plans and he will open the way for our doing it.
I find quite as much material for a lecture in those points wherein I have failed, as in those wherein I have been moderately successful.
No state, upon its own mere motion, can lawfully get out of the Union. Plainly, the central idea of secession, is the essence of anarchy.
I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.
I could not sleep when I got on the hunt for an idea, until I had caught it. This was a kind of passion with me, and it has stuck with me.