The test of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.

It ain’t nothing but you and the heavens and they’re so big and so bright that you realize just how little some things matter. And then sometimes, you realize how much little things matter.

My momma always said bossy was good for a deputy and bad for everything else.

For a moment my heart stopped beating. “It’s not the fall you know.” His breath was all warm on my cheek. “It’s that sudden stop at the end that does it.” Just before I kissed him, I whispered, “I hope it doesn’t hurt much.

The course of events is so rapidly hastening forward that the emergency may soon arise when you may be called upon to decide the momentous question whether you possess the power by force of arms to compel a State to remain in the Union.

The storm of frenzy and faction must inevitably dash itself in vain against the unshaken rock of the Constitution.

Whatever the result may be, I shall carry to my grave the consciousness that I at least meant well for my country.

The Government of the United States possesses no power whatever over the question of religion.

I am the last President of the United States!

The course of events is so rapidly hastening forward that the emergency may soon arise when you may be called upon to decide the momentous question whether you possess the power by force of arms to compel a State to remain in the Union