I believe I shall never be old enough to speak without embarrassment when I have nothing to talk about.

We can succeed only by concert. It is not, 'Can any of us imagine better,' but, 'Can we all do better?'

If you are resolutely determined to make a lawyer of yourself, the thing is more than half done already.

The fiery trials through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation.

I sincerely wish war was a pleasanter and easier business than it is, but it does not admit of holidays.

When you lack interest in the case the job will very likely lack skill and diligence in the performance.

How many times have I laughed at you telling me plainly that I was too lazy to be anything but a lawyer.

The demon of intemperance ever seems to have delighted in sucking the blood of genius and of generosity.

The damnest scoundrel that ever lived, but in the infinite mercy of Providence... also the damnest fool.

The people know their rights, and they are never slow to assert and maintain them when they are invaded.

Be with a leader when he is right, stay with him when he is still right, but, leave him when he is wrong.

I am busily engaged in the study of the Bible. I believe it is God's word because it finds me where I am.

Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.

The people know their rights, and they are never slow to assert and maintain them, when they are invaded.

None seemed to think the injury arose from the use of a bad thing but from the abuse of a very good thing

I'm a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn't have the heart to let him down.

If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.

The greatest fine art of the future will be the making of a comfortable living from a small piece of land.

Must a government be too strong for the liberties of its people or too weak to maintain its own existence?

It is a quality of revolutions not to go by old lines or old laws, but to break up both and make new ones.

May the Almighty grant that the cause of truth, justice, and humanity, shall in no wise suffer at my hands.

My paramount objective in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not to either save or destroy Slavery.

How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.

I wish to see, in process of disappearing, that only thing which ever could bring this nation to civil war.

My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families - second families, perhaps I should say.

Stand with anybody that stands right, stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong.

There's no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war. Except its ending.

A child is a person who is going to carry on what you have started ... the fate of humanity is in his hands.

Writing, the art of communicating thoughts to the mind through the eye, is the great invention of the world.

When I lay down the reins of this administration, I want to have one friend left. And that friend is myself.

I think the authors of that notable instrument [the Declaration of Independence] intended to include all men.

If you trust, you will be disappointed occasionally, but if you mistrust, you will be miserable all the time.

The leading rule for a man of every calling is diligence; never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.

I am in favor of a national bank...in favor of the internal improvements system and a high protective tariff.

Hypocrite: The man who murdered his parents, and then pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan.

Almost every thing, especially of governmental policy, is an inseparable compound of the two [good and evil].

It is not the qualified voters, but the qualified voters who choose to vote, that constitute political power.

My father, at the death of his father, was but six years of age; and he grew up, literally without education.

It is the quality of revolutions not to go by old lines or old laws; but to break up both, and make new ones.

When the hour comes for dealing with slavery, I trust I will be willing to do my duty though it cost my life.

In law it is good policy to never plead what you need not, lest you oblige yourself to prove what you can not.

Every blade of grass is a study; and to produce two, where there was but one, is both a profit and a pleasure.

No client ever had money enough to bribe my conscience or to stop its utterance against wrong, and oppression.

He who does something at the head of one Regiment, will eclipse him who does nothing at the head of a hundred.

I am the President of the United States of America, clothed in immense power! You will procure me these votes.

Men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them.

The human mind is impelled to action, or held in rest by some power, over which the mind itself has no control.

Public opinion, though often formed upon a wrong basis, yet generally has a strong underlying sense of justice.

It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination.

Again, a law may be both constitutional and expedient, and yet may be administered in an unjust and unfair way.

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