Should my administration prove to be a very wicked one...or a very foolish one, if you, the people, are true to yourselves and the Constitution, there is little harm I can do, thank God.

Nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world.

I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be 'the Union as it was'.

If any personal description of me is thought desirable, it may be said, I am, in height, six feet, four inches, nearly; lean in flesh, weighing on an average one hundred and eighty pounds; dark complexion, with coarse black hair, and grey eyes -- no other marks or brands recollected.

If there is anything that links the human to the divine, it is the courage to stand by a principle when everybody else rejects it.

War, at the best, is terrible, and this war of ours, in its magnitude and in its duration, is one of the most terrible.

With malice towards none; with charity for all.