Let there be no compromise on the question of extending slavery. If there be, all our labor is lost, and, ere long, must be done again.

A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.

I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true.

It has been said that one bad general is better than two good ones, and the saying is true if taken to mean no more than that an army is better directed by a single mind, though inferior, than by two superior ones at variance and cross-purposes with each other.

The strongest bond of human sympathy outside the family relation should be one uniting working people of all nations and tongues and kindreds.

Beware of rashness, but with energy and sleepless vigilance go forward and give us victories.

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.