"I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day."

"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."

"Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm."

"The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just."

"Surely God would not have created such a being as man, with an ability to grasp the infinite, to exist only for a day! No, no, man was made for immortality."

"I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends."

"No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent."

"I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life."

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

"He who molds the public sentiment... makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to make."

"The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read."

"No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens."

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

"I was losing interest in politics, when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again. What I have done since then is pretty well known."

"Important principles may, and must, be inflexible."

"Everybody likes a compliment."

"Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?"

"There is nothing true anywhere, The true is nowhere to be seen; If you say you see the true, This seeing is not the true one."

"Avoid popularity if you would have peace."

"Some single mind must be master, else there will be no agreement in anything."

"Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves."

"What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself."

"The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed."

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

"If there is anything that a man can do well, I say let him do it. Give him a chance."

"If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem."

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."

"These men ask for just the same thing, fairness, and fairness only. This, so far as in my power, they, and all others, shall have."

"No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar."

"People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be."

"Don't worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition."

"Fourscore 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."

"The people will save their government, if the government itself will allow them."

"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves."

"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."

"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt."

"To give victory to the right, not bloody bullets, but peaceful ballots only, are necessary."

"Republicans are for both the man and the dollar, but in case of conflict the man before the dollar."

"I can make more generals, but horses cost money."

"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe."

"Stand with anybody that stands right, stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong."

"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."

"It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues."

"Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this."

"As our case is new, we must think and act anew."

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

"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."

"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."

"God must love the common man, he made so many of them."

"Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new at all."