"Force is all-conquering but its victories are short-lived."

"I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day."

"That this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom."

"Lincoln on Grant: "He makes things get. Wherever he is, he makes things move."

"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."

"Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm."

"Elections belong to the people. It's their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters."

"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."

"Surely God would not have created such a being as man, with an ability to grasp the infinite, to exist only for a day! No, no, man was made for immortality."

"No man was to be eulogized for what he did; or censured for what he did or did not do. All of us are the children of conditions, of circumstances, of environment, of education, of acquired habits and of heredity; moulding men as they are and will for ever be."

"A farce or comedy is best played, a tragedy is best read at home."

"A house divided cannot stand."

"I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends."

"No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent."

"Hold on with a bulldog grip and chew and choke as much as possible."

"If by the mere force of numbers a majority should deprive a minority of any clearly written constitutional right, it might in a moral point of view justify revolution; certainly would if such right were a vital one. But such is not our case."

"I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life."

"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy."

"I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be new views."

"As a nation, we began by declaring that 'all men are created equal.' We now practically read it 'all men are created equal, except negroes.' When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read 'all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.' When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty " to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy."

"If this country is ever demoralized, it will come from trying to live without work."

"To believe in the things you can see and touch is no belief at all - but to believe in the unseen is a triumph and a blessing."

"All that I am or hope to be I owe to my angel mother."

"He who molds the public sentiment... makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to make."

"The better part of one's life consists of his friendships."

"Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature - opposition to it is his love of justice. These principles are an eternal antagonism; and when brought into collision so fiercely, as slavery extension brings them, shocks and throes and convulsions must ceaselessly follow."

"The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read."

"I would rather be a little nobody, then to be a evil somebody."

"No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens."

"What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried against the new and untried?"

"He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help."

"If you don't want to use the army I should like to borrow it for a while. Yours respectfully."

"I was losing interest in politics, when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again. What I have done since then is pretty well known."

"Important principles may, and must, be inflexible."

"Everybody likes a compliment."

"Whatever you are, be a good one."

"One company can serve some of your needs all of the time, or all of your needs some of the time, but never both."

"Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?"

"But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate we cannot consecrate we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract."

"There is nothing true anywhere, The true is nowhere to be seen; If you say you see the true, This seeing is not the true one."

"Avoid popularity if you would have peace."

"It is not my nature, when I see a people borne down by the weight of their shackles - the oppression of tyranny - to make their life more bitter by heaping upon them greater burdens; but rather would I do all in my power to raise the yoke than to add anything that would tend to crush them."

"Some single mind must be master, else there will be no agreement in anything."

"To ease another's heartache is to forget one's own."

"Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves."

"What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself."

"The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed."

"I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice."

"I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man. All the good from The Savior of the world is communicated to us through this Book."

"Don't criticize them, they are just what we would be under similar circumstances."