Abraham Lincoln

"The ballot is stronger than the bullet."

"It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one."

"Writing, the art of communicating thoughts to the mind through the eye."

"A nation may be said to consist of its territory, its people, and its laws. The territory is the only part which is of certain durability."

"How hard it is to realize that God is just; that He hates injustice and slavery."

"If I have one vice and one vice of all others, people are most inclined to it, I hope I am guilty of adapting myself to circumstances."

"The true rule, in determining to embrace, or reject any thing, is not whether it have any evil in it; but whether it have more of evil, than of good."

"I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me."

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

"The Union must and shall be preserved."

"I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday."

"It has long been a grave question whether any belief or opinion should be held by a man who cannot defend it against objection."

"If there ever could be a proper time for mere catch questions, that time surely is not now. In times like the present, men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be responsible through time and eternity."

"I am not concerned that you have fallen—I am concerned that you arise."

"Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived."

"The Union, it must be preserved."

"My father taught me to work, but not to love it."

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country."

"A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams."

"Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can."

"I am slow to listen to criminations among friends, and never espouse their quarrels without hearing both sides."

"The struggle of today, is not altogether for today—it is for a vast future also."

"To ease another's burden is to forget one's own."

"My early history is perfectly characterized by a single line of Gray's Elegy: 'The short and simple annals of the poor.'"

"Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to do so, and you allow him to make war at pleasure."

"The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise—with the occasion."

"Love is the chain whereby to bind a child to his parent."

"Nothing in this world is impossible to a willing heart."

"I would rather be a little nobody, then to be a evil somebody."

"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis."