When I get ready to talk to people, I spend two thirds of the time thinking what they want to hear and one third thinking about what I want to say.

I hope to stand firm enough to not go backward, and yet not go forward fast enough to wreck the country's cause.

This nation under God

No policy that does not rest upon some philosophical public opinion can be permanently maintained.

To secure to each laborer the whole product of his labor, or as nearly as possible, is a worthy object of any good government.

By the 'mud-sill' theory it is assumed that labor and education are incompatible; and any practical combination of them impossible. According to that theory, a blind horse upon a tread-mill, is a perfect illustration of what a laborer should be -- all the better for being blind, that he could not tread out of place, or kick understandingly. According to that theory, the education of laborers, is not only useless, but pernicious, and dangerous. In fact, it is, in some sort, deemed a misfortune that laborers should have heads at all.

Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.