If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it.

I could not sleep when I got on the hunt for an idea, until I had caught it. This was a kind of passion with me, and it has stuck with me.

The political horizon looks dark and lowering; but the people, under Providence, will set all right.

I will either be America's greatest president or its last.

We must not promise what we ought not, lest we be called on to perform what we cannot.

Congressmen who willfully take action during wartime that damages morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled, or hung

I say now, however, as I have all the while said, that on the territorial question - that is, the question of extending slavery under the national auspices, - I am inflexible. I am for no compromise which assists or permits the extension of the institution on soil owned by the nation.