Abraham Lincoln

I desire to see the time when education, and by its means, morality, sobriety, enterprise and industry, shall be everywhere encouraged.

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.

I think I shall not be able to get away for some time. I am very busy. I have been so ever since I came here.

I am a patient man—always willing to wait a little longer.

I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me.

The struggle of today, is not altogether for today—it is for a vast future also.

I have felt that I was in the right, and I have done the best I could.

Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves.

The people are the rightful masters of both Congresses, and courts—not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it.

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

I am exceedingly anxious that this Union, the Constitution, and the liberties of the people shall be perpetuated in accordance with the original idea for which that struggle was made.

I shall do nothing in malice. What I deal with is too vast for malicious dealing.

I have never been a man of many words, and I am not now.

I hope to stand firm enough to not go backward, and yet not go forward fast enough to wreck the country.

I am nothing, but truth is everything. I know I am right because I am reasonable.

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

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 that happy period.

The Union, which can only be maintained by a strict adherence to the principles of justice, faith, and sound policy.

I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.

In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to 'preserve, protect, and defend it.'