A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.

I affect no contempt for the high eminence he [Senator Stephen Douglas] has reached. So reached, that the oppressed of my species,might have shared with me in the elevation, I would rather stand on that eminence, than wear the richest crown that ever pressed a monarch's brow.

Let reverence for the laws . . . become the political religion of the nation.

The only security a man can ever have is the ability to do a job uncommonly well.

I am struggling to maintain the government, not to overthrow it. I am struggling especially to prevent others from overthrowing it.

Public opinion, though often formed upon a wrong basis, yet generally has a strong underlying sense of justice.

In any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall have as weak, and as strong; as silly and as wise; asbad and good.