I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me.

But for that Book, we could not know right from wrong.

[If not re-elected in 1864] then it will be my duty to so co-operate with the President elect, as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his election on such ground that he can not possibly save it afterwards.

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here so nobly advanced.

You are green, it is true; but they are green also. You are all green alike.

Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world?

If all men were just, there still would be some, though not so much, need of government.