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.

Character is like a tree, and reputation is like its shadow.

What is conservatism? Is it not the adherence to the old and tried against the new and untried?

I laugh because I must not cry, that is all, that is all.

Continue to execute all the express provisions of our national Constitution, and the Union will endure forever-it being impossible to destroy it, except by some action not provided for in the instrument itself.

You must remember that some things legally right are not morally right.

A man's legs must be long enough to reach the ground.