The time is not come for impartial history. If the truth were told just now, it would not be credited.
Robert E. LeeWe must forgive our enemies. I can truly say that not a day has passed since the war began that I have not prayed for them.
Robert E. LeeYou see what a poor sinner I am, and how unworthy to possess what was given me; for that reason it has been taken away.
Robert E. LeeMy experiences of men has neither disposed me to think worse of them nor be indisposed to serve them: nor, in spite of failures which I lament, of errors which I now see and acknowledge, or the present aspect of affairs, do I despair of the future. The truth is this: The march of Providence is so slow and our desires so impatient; the work of progress so immense and our means of aiding it so feeble; the life of humanity is so long, that of the individual so brief, that we often see only the ebb of the advancing wave and are thus discouraged. It is history that teaches us to hope.
Robert E. Lee