It is easier to make our wishes conform to our means than to make our means conform to our wishes.

A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday does not know where it is today.

Mr. Blair, I look upon secession as anarchy. If I owned the four millions of slaves in the South, I would sacrifice them all to the Union; but how can I draw my sword upon Virginia, my native State?

There are few, I believe, in this enlightened age, who will not acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil.

A land without memories is a people without liberty.

Remember, we are all one country now. Dismiss from your mind all sectional feeling, and bring them up to be Americans.

I have always observed that wherever you find the negro, everything is going down around him, and wherever you find the white man, you see everything around him improving.

I believe it to be the duty of everyone to unite in the restoration of the country and the reestablishment of peace and harmony.

The consolidation of the states into one vast empire, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of ruin which has overwhelmed all that preceded it.

So far from engaging in a war to perpetuate slavery, I am rejoiced that slavery is abolished.

In all my perplexities and distresses, the Bible has never failed to give me light and strength.

Maybe love isn’t meant to be bliss never-ending. Maybe love is unwavering support and befriending.

There is only one thing in this world worse than dying and that’s watching someone you love die instead—you feel their pain with no final solace.

Bach is thus a terminal point. Nothing comes from him; everything merely leads to him.

The quality of life is determined by its activities.

Here is another secret: I have no business being fascinated by you.

As we begin to face up to the holiness of God, our lives resound with that very same anthem, here and now upon the earth.

Give me silence, water, hope Give me struggle, iron, volcanoes.

Thinking that everything must be bigger to matter is a problem. Small power emanates and disseminates in a very different way.

Forecasts usually tell us more of the forecaster than of the forecast

At once, good night- Stand not upon the order of your going, But go at once.