Quote collection
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"Do the people of the South really entertain fears that a Republican administration would, directly, or indirectly, interfere with their slaves, or with them, about their slaves? If they do, I wish to assure you, as once a friend, and still, I hope, not an enemy, that there is no cause for such fears."
"As a general rule never take your whole fee in advance, nor any more than a small retainer. When fully paid beforehand, you are more than a common mortal if you can feel the same interest in the case, as if something was still in prospect for you, as well as for your client."
"And then, there will be some black men who can remember that, with silent tongue, and clenched teeth, and steady eye, and well-poised bayonnet, they have helped mankind on to this great consummation."
"Politics, as a trade, finds most and leaves nearly all dishonest."
"I am slow to learn and slow to forget that which I have learned. My mind is like a piece of steel, very hard to scratch any thing on it and almost impossible after you get it there to rub it out."
"Believing everybody is dangerous, but believing nobody is more dangerous."
"The worst thing you can do for anyone you care about is anything that they can do on their own."
"The time has come when I am for everybody fighting the rebels. Let Indians fight them; let the Negroes fight them; and if you have got any strong-legged jackasses in Iwoa that can kick rebels to death, they have my hearty consent."
"Always let your subordinates know that the honor will be all theirs if they succeed and the blame will be yours if they fail."
"The blessing always comes back to the door of the author."
"Let us do nothing through passion and ill temper."
"I believe each individual is naturally entitled to do as he pleases with himself and the fruit of his labor, so far as it in no wise interferes with any other mans rightsthat each community, as a State, has a right to do exactly as it pleases with all the concerns within that State that interfere with the right of no other State, and that the general government, upon principle, has no right to interfere with anything other than that general class of things that does concern the whole."
"The trouble with Hooker is that he's got his headquarters where his hindquarters aught to be."
"Calling a tail a leg does not make it a leg."
"It is not 'Is God on my side', but 'Am I on God's side'."
"Too big to cry too young to laugh."
"It is not the qualified voters, but the qualified voters who choose to vote, that constitute political power."
"I have no wealthy or popular relations to recommend me."
"I confess I hate to see the poor creatures hunted down but I bite my lip and keep quiet."
"When you lack interest in the case the job will very likely lack skill and diligence in the performance."