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.

What I want is to get done what the people desire to have done, and the question for me is how to find that out exactly.

Don't pray that God's on our side, pray that we're on his side.

Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.

Be with a leader when he is right, stay with him when he is still right, but, leave him when he is wrong.

I was born and have ever remaind [sic] in the most humble walks of life.

A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.