And upon this act [Emancipation Proclamation]...I invoke...the gracious favor of Almighty God.

As long as the Almighty permitted intelligent men, created in his image and likeness, to fight in public and kill each other while the world looks on approvingly, it's not for me to deprive the chickens of the same privilege.

All the armies of Europe combined could not by force make a track upon the Blue Ridge, or take a drink from the Ohio. If we are to be destroyed, we must do it ourselves.

Believing everybody is dangerous, but believing nobody is more dangerous.

When I lay down the reins of this administration, I want to have one friend left. And that friend is myself.

Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.

We must not promise what we ought not, lest we be called on to perform what we cannot.