We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown.

I will do what I think is right and when I discover that it is wrong, I will change it.

He who molds the public sentiment... makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to make.

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

We can succeed only by concert. It is not 'can any of us imagine better?, but 'can we all do better?

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.

My Dear McClellan, if you don't want to use the army I should like to borrow it for a while. Yours respectfully.