One section of our country believes slavery is right, and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong, and ought not to be extended.

I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence.

My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.

At 50, if you are on a diet on your birthday, you can't eat a piece of your birthday cake. So grab two, a piece in each hand and, lo and behold, you will be on a balanced diet! Happy birthday, old chum!

There is an important sense in which government is distinctive from administration. One is perpetual, the other is temporary and changeable. A man may be loyal to his government and yet oppose the particular principles and methods of administration.

No one has needed favours more than I, and generally, few have been less unwilling to accept them; but in this case, favour to me,would be injustice to the public, and therefore I must beg your pardon for declining it.

My paramount objective in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not to either save or destroy Slavery.