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.

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

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

I'm a slow walker, but I never walk back.

The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly.

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.

Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.

I hope to stand firm enough to not go backward, and yet not go forward fast enough to wreck the country's cause.

The people will save their government, if the government itself will allow them.

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

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

If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.

A house divided against itself cannot stand.

If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six hours sharpening my ax.

The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.

These men ask for just the same thing, fairness, and fairness only. This, so far as in my power, they, and all others, shall have.

Republicans are for both the man and the dollar, but in case of conflict the man before the dollar.

Public opinion in this country is everything.

In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong.

Important principles may, and must, be inflexible.

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

When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion.

Everybody likes a compliment.

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

Whatever you are, be a good one.

Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.

The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself in every way he can, never suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him.

When you have got an elephant by the hind legs and he is trying to run away, it's best to let him run.

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.

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

I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.

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.

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

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

Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.

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

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

Knavery and flattery are blood relations.

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.

The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's 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 dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.

The people themselves, and not their servants, can safely reverse their own deliberate decisions.

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

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.

How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.

There is nothing true anywhere, The true is nowhere to be seen; If you say you see the true, This seeing is not the true one.

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 I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business.