Nations do not die from invasion; they die from internal rottenness.

Quarrel not at all. No man resolved to make the most of himself can spare time for personal contention.

On the whole, my impression is that mercy bears richer fruits than any other attribute.

Peace will come soon to stay, and so come as to be worth keeping in all future time. It will then have proved that among free men there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet, and that they who take such appeal are sure their cases and pay the costs.

Writing is the great invention of the world.

My policy is to have no policy.

Nor must Uncle Sam's Web-feet be forgotten. At all the watery margins they have been present. Not only on the deep sea, the broadbay, and the rapid river, but also up the narrow muddy bayou, and wherever the ground was a little damp, they have been, and made their tracks.