Popular Quotes Through Time

There will be no blood shed unless it be forced upon the Government. The Government will not use force unless force is used against it.

I bring to the work [of president] an honest heart; I dare not tell you that I bring a head sufficient for it.

Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope, in the world?

Continue to execute all the express provisions of our national Constitution, and the Union will endure forever.

We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.

The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

Our men are not moles, and can't dig under the earth; they are not birds, and can't fly through the air. There is no way but to march across, and that they must do.

I have desired as sincerely as any man - I sometimes think more than any other man - that our present difficulties might be settled without the shedding of blood.

Wanting to work is so rare a merit, that it should be encouraged.

It is a struggle for maintaining in the world, that form and substance of government whose leading object is to elevate the condition of men.

So much of promised usefulness to one's country, and of bright hopes for one's self and friends, have rarely been so suddenly dashed, as in his fall.

I have been unwilling to go beyond the pressure of necessity in the unusual exercise of power.

It is gratifying to know that the patriotism of the people has proved equal to the occasion, and that the number of troops tendered greatly exceeds the force which Congress authorized me to call into the field.

I distrust the wisdom if not the sincerity of friends, who would hold my hands while my enemies stab me.

I am a patient man - always willing to forgive on the Christian terms of repentance; and also to give ample time for repentance.

I shall do nothing in malice. What I deal with is too vast for malicious dealing.

It is difficult to make a man miserable while he feels worthy of himself, and claims kindred to the great God who made him.

I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.

In great contests, each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong.

The North responds to the proclamation sufficiently in breath; but breath alone kills no rebels.