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.

Were it not for my little jokes, I could not bear the burdens of this office.

Writing, the art of communicating thoughts to the mind through the eye, is the great invention of the world.

Now if you should hear any one say that Lincoln don't [sic] want to go to Congress, I wish you as a personal friend of mine, wouldtell him that you have reason to believe he is mistaken.

To secure to each laborer the whole product of his labor, or as nearly as possible, is a worthy object of any good government.

I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom.

Why don't you laugh? If I did not laugh I should die, and you need this medicine as much as I do.