Abraham Lincoln — "I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have cont…"

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

"I am rather inclined to silence, and whether that be wise or not, it is at least more unusual nowadays to find a man who can hold his tongue than to find one who cannot."

"I am a slow walker, but I never walk backward."

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

"My early life, and indeed the whole of my life, has been one of toil and hardship."