Abraham Lincoln

My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.

I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end... I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me.

Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.

I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.

The people know their rights, and they are never slow to assert and maintain them when they are invaded.

Stand with anybody that stands right, stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong.

Let reverence for the laws be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap - let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in primers, spelling books, and in almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice.

A private soldier has as much right to justice as a major-general.

He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.

I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.

If the great American people will only keep their temper, on both sides of the line, the troubles will come to an end, and the question which now distracts the country will be settled just as surely as all other difficulties of like character which have originated in this government have been adjusted.

I have said a hundred times, and I have no inclination to take it back, that I believe there is no right, and ought to be no inclination in the people of the free States to enter into the slave States, and to interfere with the question of slavery at all. I have said that always.