Abraham Lincoln

Avoid popularity if you would have peace.

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.

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

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.

What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.

Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors.

The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself in every way he can, never suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him.

Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.

You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.

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.

If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?

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

With Malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds.

Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.

True patriotism is better than the wrong kind of piety.

When I do good I feel good, when I do bad I feel bad, and that's my religion.

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

That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.

If the great American people will only keep their temper, on both sides of the line, the troubles will come to an end, and the question which now distracts the country will be settled just as surely as all other difficulties of like character which have originated in this government have been adjusted.