“Nothing would be done at all, if a man waited till he could do it so well, that no one could find fault with it.”

“Nothing could tempt me to do this man injustice, though I could hardly add to the injury he has done himself.”

“Heaven knows that I have done all that a mortal could do, to save the people, and the failure was not my fault, but the fault of others.”

“I had done all that I could, and no Man is well pleased to have his all neglected, be it ever so little.”

“Sometimes, he thought, all you could do was wait.”

“I think very much of the people, as an old friend said he thought of woman. He said when he lost his first wife, who had been a great help to him in his business, he thought he was ruined — that he could never find another to fill her place. At length, however, he married another, who he found did quite as well as the first, and that his opinion now was that any woman would do well who was well done by. So I think of the whole people of this nation — they will ever do well if well done by. We will try to do well by them in all parts of the country, North and South, with entire confidence that all will be well with all of us.”

“Because sometimes, a man could do nothing about where he came from, he could only control where he went”

“It is well that there is no one without a fault; for he would not have a friend in the world.”

“Put an Englishman into the garden of Eden, and he would find fault with the whole blasted concern; put a Yankee in, and he would see where he could alter it to advantage; put an Irishman in, and he would want to boss the thing; put a Dutchman in, and he would proceed to plant it.”

“What dark secrets do you keep hidden from the world? Where would you go if no one could find you? What would you do if no one could see you?”