Law is nothing else but the best reason of wise men applied for ages to the transactions and business of mankind.

We should avoid planting and cultivating too many thorns in the bosom of society.

If we know where we are and something about how we got there, we might see where we are trending - and if the outcomes which lie naturally in our course are unacceptable, to make timely change.

...I am exceedingly anxious that this Union, the Constitution, and the liberties of the people shall be perpetuated in accordance with the original idea for which that struggle was made, and I shall be most happy indeed if I shall be an humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty, and of this, his almost chosen people, for perpetuating the object of that great struggle.

The Bible says somewhere that we are desperately selfish. I think we would have discovered that fact without the Bible.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.

Seriously, I do not think I am fit for the Presidency.