Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done today.
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.
I have a congenital aversion to failure.
If I am killed, I can die but once; but to live in constant dread of it, is to die over and over again.
Every man’s happiness is his own responsibility.
I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.
I am rather inclined to silence, and whether that be wise or not, it is at least more unusual nowadays to find a man who can hold his tongue than to find one who cannot.
You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
A farce or comedy is best played; a tragedy is best read at home.
Passion has helped us; but can do so no more. It will in future be our enemy. Reason, cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason, must furnish all the materials for our future support and defense.
I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence.
“In law it is a good policy to never plead what you need not, lest you oblige yourself to prove what you cannot.
Let us at all times remember that all American citizens are brothers of a common country, and should dwell together in the bonds of fraternal feeling.
In very truth he was, the noblest work of God—an honest man.