Resolve to be honest at all events; and if in your own judgment you cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without being a lawyer.
Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built.
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.
He who moulds the public sentiment… makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to make.
Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.
The people themselves, and not their servants, can safely reverse their own deliberate decisions.
I do the very best I know how – the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.
The assertion that “all men are created equal” was of no practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain and it was placed in the Declaration not for that, but for future use.
Avoid popularity if you would have peace.
I’m a slow walker, but I never walk back.
I can make more generals, but horses cost money.
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.
Public opinion in this country is everything.
Hold on with a bulldog grip, and chew and choke as much as possible.
The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.
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.
It’s my experience that folks who have no vices have generally very few virtues.
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.
Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.
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.