Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature - opposition to it is his love of justice. These principles are an eternal antagonism; and when brought into collision so fiercely, as slavery extension brings them, shocks and throes and convulsions must ceaselessly follow.
I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right; but it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation may be on the Lord's side.
If there is anything that a man can do well, I say let him do it. Give him a chance.
Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable - a most sacred right - a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world.
The point - the power to hurt - of all figures lies in the truthfulness of their application.
These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert to fleece the people; and now that they have got into a quarrel with themselves, we are called upon to appropriate the people's money to settle the quarrel.
I was losing interest in politics, when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again. What I have done since then is pretty well known.
The highest art is always the most religious, and the greatest artist is always a devout person.
The people know their rights, and they are never slow to assert and maintain them when they are invaded.
The assertion that 'all men are created equal' was of no practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain and it was placed in the Declaration not for that, but for future use.
I hold that while man exists, it is his duty to improve not only his own condition, but to assist in ameliorating mankind.
It is a great piece of folly to attempt to make anything out of my early life.
There may sometimes be ungenerous attempts to keep a young man down; and they will succeed, too, if he allows his mind to be diverted from its true channel to brood over the attempted injury.
Extemporaneous speaking should be practiced and cultivated. It is the lawyer's avenue to the public. However able and faithful he may be in other respects, people are slow to bring him business if he cannot make a speech.
Avoid popularity if you would have peace.
When you have got an elephant by the hind legs and he is trying to run away, it's best to let him run.
Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.
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.
I hope to stand firm enough to not go backward, and yet not go forward fast enough to wreck the country's cause.
Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets.
