Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors of bullets, and that when ballots have fairly and constitutionall y decided there can be no successful appeal back to bullets.

I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.

I hope it will not be irreverent in me to say, that if it be probable that God would reveal his will to others, on a point so connected with my duty, it might be supposed he would reveal it directly to me

I am for those means which will give the greatest good to the greatest number.

When I left Springfield [to become President] I asked the people to pray for me. I was not a Christian. When I buried my son, the severest trial of my life, I was not a Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg and saw the graves of thousands of our soldiers, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ.

A capacity and taste for reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others.

I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country.