All quotes

If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must, or the Government must cease.

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it.

On the question of liberty, as a principle, we are not what we have been.

Resolve to be honest at all events; and if in your own judgment you cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without being a lawyer.

The leading rule for a lawyer, as for the man of every other calling, is diligence.

Our cause, then, must be intrusted to, and conducted by, its own undoubted friends--those whose hands are free, whose hearts are in the work, who do care for the result.

Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature,--opposition to it in his love of justice.

This declared indifference, but, as I must think, real, covert zeal, for the spread of slavery, I cannot but hate.

What I do say is that no man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent.

When the white man governs himself, that is self-government; but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self-government,--that is despotism.

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in

We may say most aptly that the Analytical Engine weaves algebraical patterns just as the Jacquard-loom weaves flowers and leaves.

The engine can arrange and combine its numerical quantities exactly as if they were letters or any other general symbols; and in fact it might bring out its results in algebraical notation, were provisions made accordingly.

The Analytical Engine has no pretensions whatever to originate any thing. It can do whatever we know how to order it to perform.

The aim of moral discipline is to purify the heart from the rust of passion and resentment, till, like a clear mirror, it reflects the light of God.

The soul should take care of the body, just as a pilgrim on his way to Mecca takes care of his camel.

Energy in the Executive is a leading character in the definition of good government.

The happy and the powerful do not go into exile, and there are no surer guarantees of equality among men than poverty and misfortune.

There is, in fact, a manly and lawful passion for equality which excites men to wish all to be powerful and honored.

Unable to perceive a single chance of regaining their equality, they give up to despair, and allow themselves to fall below the dignity of human nature.

At first sight there is something surprising in this strange unrest of so many happy men, restless in the midst of abundance.

It tends to isolate them from each other, to concentrate every man's attention upon himself; and it lays open the soul to an inordinate love of material gratification.

The soul has wants which must be satisfied; and whatever pains be taken to divert it from itself, it soon grows weary, restless, and disquieted amidst the enjoyments of sense.

Considering standing armies as dangerous to free governments in time of peace, I shall not seek to enlarge our present establishment, nor disregard that salutary lesson of political experience which teaches that the military should be held subordinate to the civil power.

In administering the laws of Congress I shall keep steadily in view the limitations as well as the extent of the Executive power trusting thereby to discharge the functions of my office without transcending its authority.