I hope to stand firm enough to not go backward, and yet not go forward fast enough to wreck the country's cause.

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

What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.

In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you.... You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect and defend it.

Friends, I agree with you in Providence; but I believe in the Providence of the most men, the largest purse, and the longest cannon.

A new book is like a friend that I have yet to meet

My paramount objective in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not to either save or destroy Slavery.