Quote collection
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"We believe that the spreading out and perpetuity of the institution of slavery impairs the general welfare. We believe - nay, we know, that that is the only thing that has ever threatened the perpetuity of the Union itself."
"But, slavery is good for some people! ! ! As a good thing, slavery is strikingly peculiar, in this, that it is the only good thing which no man ever seeks the good of, for himself."
"If the union of these States, and the liberties of this people, shall be lost, it is but little to any one man of fifty-two yearsof age, but a great deal to the thirty millions of people who inhabit these United States, and to their posterity in all coming time."
"I wish all men to be free. I wish the material prosperity of the already free which I feel sure the extinction of slavery would bring."
"Offering thanks in the midst of tragedy is an American tradition, . even during a bloody Civil War."
"He who does something at the head of one Regiment, will eclipse him who does nothing at the head of a hundred."
"I shall be most happy indeed if I shall be an humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty, and of this his almost chosen people."
"Why don't you laugh? If I did not laugh I should die, and you need this medicine as much as I do."
"Being President is like the man who was tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail... A man in the crowd asked how he liked it, and his reply was that if it wasn't for the honor of the thing, he would much rather walk."
"Labor is superior to capital and precedes capital. Without labor, there is no capital."
"When I lay down the reins of this administration, I want to have one friend left. And that friend is myself."
"When you have got a ticket to send, and you're not a top costumer, it's best not to waste your time."
"In all that people can do for themselves, government ought not to interfere."
"I am for the people of the whole nation doing just as they please in all matters which concern the whole nation; for that of each part doing just as they choose in all matters which concern no other part; and for each individual doing just as he chooses in all matters which concern nobody else."
"I always remember the prayers of my mother as they always forever."
"Slavery is wrong. If Slavery is right, all words, acts, laws, and Constitutions against it, are themselves wrong, and should be silenced, and swept away."
"We cannot ask a man what he will do, and if we should, and he should answer us, we should despise him for it. Therefore we must take a man whose opinions are known."
"Moral principle is a looser bond than pecuniary interest."
"Let there be no compromise on the question of extending slavery. If there be, all our labor is lost, and, ere long, must be done again."
"Work, work, work, is the main thing."