All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.

You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.

Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.

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.

Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.

The ballot is stronger than the bullet.

The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.

Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.

I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.

Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

I don't like that man. I must get to know him better.

Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.

I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.

I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.

I will prepare and some day my chance will come.

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.

How many legs does a dog have if you call his tail a leg? Four. Saying that a tail is a leg doesn't make it a leg.

No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.

Don't worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.

Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.

It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.

We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.

When I do good I feel good, when I do bad I feel bad, and that's my religion.

I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.

Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?

Marriage is neither heaven nor hell, it is simply purgatory.

I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.

I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.

The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of liberty.

My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.

That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.

I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.

Stand with anybody that stands right, stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong.

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.

If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.

A house divided against itself cannot stand.

Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say, for one, that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow-men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition is yet to be developed.

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

The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.

The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read.

Avoid popularity if you would have peace.

He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.

Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.

You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.

The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly.

My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.

I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.

A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me.

We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.

When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees.

Important principles may, and must, be inflexible.

A friend is one who has the same enemies as you have.

No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.

If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.

No man is good enough to govern another man without the other's consent.

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.

What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.