I shall oppose all slavery extension and all increase of slave representation in all places, at all times, under all circumstances, even against all inducements, against all supposed limitations of great interests, against all combinations, against all compromises.

We are all agents of the same supreme power, the people.

The world is governed more by appearance than realities so that it is fully as necessary to seem to know something as to know it.

When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood.

Let our object be - our country, our whole country, and nothing but our country. And by the blessing of God, may that country itself become a vast and splendid monument - not of oppression and terror, but of wisdom, of Peace, and of Liberty, upon which the world may gaze with admiration forever.

There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters

The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions