"I have found that most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."

"I fear you do not fully comprehend the danger of abridging the liberties of the people. Nothing but the very sternest necessity can ever justify it. A government had better go to the very extreme of toleration, than to do aught that could be construed into an interference with, or to jeopardize in any degree, the common rights of its citizens."

"I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him."

"The highest art is always the most religious, and the greatest artist is always a devout person."

"Knavery and flattery are blood relations."

"Abraham Lincoln was asked by an aide about the church service he had attended. Lincoln responded that the minister was inspired, interesting, well-prepared, eloquent and the topic relevant. The aide said, "Then it was a good service?Lincoln responded, "No. The aide protested,"But, Mr. President, you said that the minister was inspired, interesting, well-prepared, eloquent, and that the topic was relevant."Yes, replied Lincoln, "but he didn't challenge us to do any great thing."

"The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next."

"When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion."

"The fiery trials through which we pass will light us down in honour or dishonour to the latest generation."

"My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth."

"In times like the present, men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be responsible through time and eternity."

"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."

"A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me."

"Let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you and in the end you are sure to succeed."

"Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing."

"I care not for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it."

"Gold is good in its place; but loving, brave, patriotic men are better than gold."

"I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong."

"Repeal the Missouri Compromise - repeal all compromises - repeal the Declaration of Independence - repeal all past history, you still cannot repeal human nature. It will be the abundance of man's heart that slavery extension is wrong; and out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth will continue to speak."

"The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of liberty."

"We trust sir that God is on our side. It is more important to know that we are on God's side."

"I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong."

"The assertion that 'all men are created equal' was of no practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain and it was placed in the Declaration not for that, but for future use."

"The ballot is stronger than the bullet."

"Congressmen who willfully take action during wartime that damages morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled, or hung."

"Achievement has no color."

"You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down."

"Marriage is neither heaven nor hell, it is simply purgatory."

"In regards to this great Book [the Bible], I have but to say it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this Book. But for it we could not know right from wrong. All things most desirable for man's welfare, here and hereafter, are found portrayed in it."

"I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free."

"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time."

"Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle."

"Honest statesmanship is the wise employment of individual meannesses for the public good."

"Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable - a most sacred right - a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world."

"Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their violation by others."

"There has never been but one question in all civilization-how to keep a few men from saying to many men: You work and earn bread and we will eat it."

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

"Passion has helped us; but can do so no more. It will in future be our enemy. Reason, cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason, must furnish all the materials for our future support and defence."

"True patriotism is better than the wrong kind of piety."

"What is to be, will be, and no prayers of ours can arrest the decree. [Lincoln's maxim and philosophy]"

"With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die."

"Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?"

"Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving the Constitution of the United States as our fathers made it inviolate. The people of the United States are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution."

"For my part, I desire to see the time when education - and by its means, morality, sobriety, enterprise and industry - shall become much more general than at present, and should be gratified to have it in my power to contribute something to the advancement of any measure which might have a tendency to accelerate the happy period."

"I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how a man could look up into the heavens and say there is no God."

"Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose - and you allow him to make war at pleasure."

"Those who look for the bad in people will surely find it."

"When I get ready to talk to people, I spend two thirds of the time thinking what they want to hear and one third thinking about what I want to say."

"Every one desires to live long, but no one would be old."

"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that."