The men who act stand nearer to the mass of man than the men who write; and it is in their hands that new thought gets its translation into the crude language of deeds.

Not all change is progress.

I must beg you to indulge me in the matter of hyphens.... You will find that I have marked out a great many in the proofs. We arein danger of Germanizing our printing by using them so much, and I have a very decided preference in the matter.

America is the place where you cannot kill your government by killing the men who conduct it.

I am one who fights without a knack of hoping confidentlysimply a Scotch-Irishman who will not be conquered.

The only place in the world that nothing has to be explained to me is the South.

God knows that any man who would seek the presidency of the United States is a fool for his pains. The burden is all but intolerable, and the things that I have to do are just as much as the human spirit can carry.