All I ask for the negro is that if you do not like him, let him alone. If God gave him but little, that little let him enjoy.

Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed

I desire to so conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end, when I come to lay down the reins of power, 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.

A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half-slave and half-free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved – I do not expect the house to fall – but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.

The United States government must not undertake to run the Churches. When an individual, in the Church or out of it, becomes dangerous to the public interest he must be checked.

I care not for a man’s religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.

In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book.

Surely God would not have created such a being as man, with an ability to grasp the infinite, to exist only for a day! No, no, man was made for immortality.

No man is good enough to govern another man, without that other’s consent. I say this is the leading principle–the sheet anchor of American republicanism.

I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal.

The one victory we can ever call complete will be that one which proclaims that there is not one slave or one drunkard on the face of God’s green earth.

You think slavery is right and should be extended; while we think slavery is wrong and ought to be restricted. That I suppose is the rub. It certainly is the only substantial difference between us.

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.

I have stepped out upon this platform that I may see you and that you may see me, and in the arrangement I have the best of the bargain.

The demon of intemperance ever seems to have delighted in sucking the blood of genius and of generosity.

I know not how to aid you, save in the assurance of one of mature age, and much severe experience, that you can not fail, if you resolutely determine, that you will not.

I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me.

What is to be, will be, and no prayers of ours can arrest the decree.

And having thus chosen our course, without guile, and with pure purpose, let us renew our trust in God, and go forward without fear, and with manly hearts.