I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.

Ambiguity

I fear explanations explanatory of things explained.

Appearance

The Lord prefers common looking people. That is why he made so many of them.

Capitalism

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. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights.

Character

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

Conflict

It is the eternal struggle between these two principles -- right and wrong. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time and will ever continue to struggle. It is the same spirit that says, "You work and toil and earn bread, and I'll eat it."

Control

What I do say is that no man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent.

Critics and Criticism

If I care to listen to every criticism, let alone act on them, then this shop may as well be closed for all other businesses. I have learned to do my best, and if the end result is good then I do not care for any criticism, but if the end result is not good, then even the praise of ten angels would not make the difference.

Deception

You can fool some of the people all the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.

Excellence

I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.

Failure

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

Feelings

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

Freedom

Freedom is the last, best hope of earth.

Friends and Friendship

I desire to so conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end, when I come to lay down the reins of power, I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me.

Future

The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.

God

It is difficult to make a man miserable while he feels he is worthy of himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him.

History and Historians

Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history.

Humankind

God must love the common man, he made so many of them.

Justice

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.

Leaders and Leadership

Public sentiment is everything, without it nothing can fail, without it nothing can succeed.

Listening

When I am getting ready to reason with a man, I spend one-third of my time thinking about myself and what I am going to say and two-thirds about him and what he is going to say.

Perseverance

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

Planning

We must ask where we are and whither we are tending.

Poverty and The Poor

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.

Preparation

I will prepare and some day my chance will come.

Progress

I walk slowly, but I never walk backward.

Providence

Friends, I agree with you in Providence; but I believe in the Providence of the most men, the largest purse, and the longest cannon.

Reality

The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

Self-esteem

Seriously, I do not think I fit for the presidency.

Silence

To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.

Soldier

But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.

Time and Time Management

Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time.

Vice

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

Vow

We must not promise what we ought not, lest we be called on to perform what we cannot.

Work

Wanting to work is so rare a merit that it should be encouraged.