I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.

None seemed to think the injury arose from the use of a bad thing but from the abuse of a very good thing

In using the strong hand, as now compelled to do, the government has a difficult duty to perform. At the very best, it will by turns do both too little and too much. It can properly have no motive of revenge, no purpose to punish merely for punishment's sake. While we must, by all available means, prevent the overthrow of the government, we should avoid planting and cultivating too many thorns in the bosom of society.

I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me and the bankers in the rear. Of the two, the one at my rear is my greatest foe.

The best way to get rid of your enemies is to make them your friends.

That our government should have been maintained in its original form from its establishment until now, is not much to be wondered at. It had many props to support it through that period, which now are decayed, and crumbled away. Through that period, it was felt by all, to be an undecided experiment; now, it is understood to be a successful one.

I don't s'pose anybody on earth likes gingerbread better'n I do-and gets less'n I do.