I believe that every individual is naturally entitled to do as he pleases with himself and the fruits of his labor, so far as it in no way interferes with any other men’s rights.
We must not promise what we ought not, lest we be called on to perform what we cannot.
My faith in the proposition that each man should do precisely as he pleases with all which is exclusively his own lies at the foundation of the sense of justice there is in me.
Adhere to your purpose and you will soon feel as well as you ever did. On the contrary, if you falter, and give up, you will lose the power of keeping any resolution, and will regret it all your life.
If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend.
Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.
Always remember: Life is for enjoying.
I have an irrepressible desire to live till I can be assured that the world is a little better for my having lived in it.
Property is the fruit of labor; property is desirable; it is a positive good.
Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition.
I believe, if we take habitual drunkards as a class, their heads and their hearts will bear an advantageous comparison with those of any other class. There seems ever to have been a proneness in the brilliant and warm-blooded to fall into this vice.
It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness...
Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him, who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulty.
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 should be on the Lord’s side.
While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government in the short space of four years.
Certainly there is no contending against the Will of God; but still there is some difficulty in ascertaining, and applying it, to particular cases.
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.
Let us diligently apply the means, never doubting that a just God, in his own good time, will give us the rightful result.
Public opinion, though often formed upon a wrong basis, yet generally has a strong underlying sense of justice.
With firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right.