Twenty-two years ago Judge [then-Senator Stephen] Douglas and I first became acquainted. We were both young then; he a trifle younger than I. Even then, we were both ambitious; I, perhaps, quite as much so as he. With me, the race of ambition has been a failure--a flat failure; with him it has been one of splendid success.

The fiery trials through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation.

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.

Now I confess myself as belonging to that class in the country who contemplate slavery as a moral, social and political evil.

The most reliable way to predict the future is to create it.

There are few things wholly evil or wholly good. Almost everything, especially of government policy, is an inseparable compound of the two, so that our best judgment of the preponderance between them is continually demanded.

I desire to see the time when education, and by its means, morality, sobriety, enterprise and industry shall become much more general than at present.