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 people themselves, and not their servants, can safely reverse their own deliberate decisions.
If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.
The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend.
Marriage is neither heaven nor hell, it is simply purgatory.
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.
Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built.
The ballot is stronger than the bullet.
I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.
I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.
Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.
I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.
To give victory to the right, not bloody bullets, but peaceful ballots only, are necessary.
Every blade of grass is a study; and to produce two, where there was but one, is both a profit and a pleasure.
I'm a slow walker, but I never walk back.
The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.
The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.
All my life I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever the flower would grow in thought and mind.
