I will prepare and some day my chance will come.

My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.

I hope to stand firm enough to not go backward, and yet not go forward fast enough to wreck the country's cause.

I should like to know if, taking this old Declaration of Independence, which declares that all men are equal upon principle, you begin making exceptions to it, where will you stop? If one man says it does not mean a Negro, why not another say it does not mean some other man?

A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me.

in times like the present, men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be responsible through time and eternity.

I'm a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn't have the heart to let him down.