Oh, that [his Thanksgiving Message] is some of Seward's nonsense, and it pleases the fools.

I hold the value of life is to improve one's condition. Whatever is calculated to advance the condition of the honest, struggling laboring man, so far as my judgment will enable me to judge of a correct thing, I am for that thing.

It is a good face. I am glad this war is over at last.

The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise to the occasion. We cannot escape history. We will be remembered in spite of ourselves. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honour or dishonour, to the last generation. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, our last best hope of Earth.

Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.

I am not in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office.

The better part of one's life consists of his friendships.