I could as easily bail out the Potomac River with a teaspoon as attend to all the details of the army.

I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.

Few can be induced to labor exclusively for posterity - Posterity has done nothing for us

I am for . . . each individual doing just as he chooses in all matters which concern nobody else.

I know the hole he went in at, but I can't tell you what hole he will come out of.

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.

Our eldest boy, Bob, has been away from us nearly a year at school, and will enter Harvard University this month. He promises verywell, considering we never controlled him much.