If I had my choice I would kill every reporter in the world, but I am sure we would be getting reports from Hell before breakfast.

If nominated by either party, I should peremptorily decline, and even if unanimously elected, I should decline to serve.

You may as well say, 'That's a valiant flea that dare eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion.

The young bloods of the South: sons of planters, lawyers about towns, good billiard-players and sportsmen, men who never did any work and never will... They are splendid riders, first-rate shots and utterly reckless. These men must all be killed or employed by us before we can hope for peace.

The North can make a steam engine, locomotive or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or a pair of shoes can you make. You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical and determined people on earth - right at your doors. You are bound to fail. Only in spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with.

You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will.

If forced to choose between the penitentiary and the White House for four years, I would say the penitentiary, thank you.