Quote collection
1.1K quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"If you wish to be a lawyer, attach no consequence to the place you are in, or the person you are with; but get books, sit down anywhere, and go to reading for yourself. That will make a lawyer of you quicker than any other way."
"The sense of obligation to continue is present in all of us. A duty to strive is the duty of us all. I felt a call to that duty."
"I hope it will not be irreverent in me to say, that if it be probable that God would reveal his will to others, on a point so connected with my duty, it might be supposed he would reveal it directly to me"
"The land-grant university system is being built on behalf of the people, who have invested in these public universities their hopes, their support, and their confidence."
"No organic law can ever be framed with a provision specifically applicable to every question which may occur in practical administration. .. No foresight can anticipate nor any document of reasonable length contain express provisions for all possible questions."
"My father taught me to work, but not to love it. I never did like to work, and I don't deny it. I'd rather read, tell stories, crack jokes, talk, laugh -- anything but work."
"Destroy your enemy by making him your friend."
"When the white man governs himself, that is self-government; but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self-government-that is despotism."
"I can make more generals, but horses cost money."
"I sincerely wish war was a pleasanter and easier business than it is, but it does not admit of holidays."
"A tendancy to melancholy...let it be observed, is a misfortune, not a fault."
"The man does not live who is more devoted to peace than I am. None who would do more to preserve it."
"Certainly there is no contending against the Will of God; but still there is some difficulty in ascertaining, and applying it, to particular cases."
"I have an irrepressible desire to live till I can be assured that the world is a little better for my having lived in it."
"I am greatly obliged to you, and to all who have come forward at the call of their country."
"I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me."
"During the Civil War, on hearing complaints that Gen. Ulysses S. Grant drank alcohol to excess Find out what Grant drinks and send a barrel of it to each of my other generals!"
"Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors of bullets, and that when ballots have fairly and constitutionall y decided there can be no successful appeal back to bullets."
"My old father used to have a saying: If you make a bad bargain, hug it all the tighter."
"If I gave McClellan all the men he asked for, they could not find room to lie down; they'd have to sleep standing up."