My father taught me to work; he did not teach me to love it.

The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.

Don’t criticize them; they are just what we would be under similar circumstances.

Let all Americans - let all lovers of liberty everywhere - join in the great and good work. If we do this, we shall not only have saved the Union; but we shall have so saved it, as to make, and to keep it, forever worthy of the saving.

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

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.

In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man.