With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds.

More from Abraham Lincoln

• Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say, for one, that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow-men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem.
• Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.
• I don’t know who my grandfather was. I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.
• I have in irrepressible desire to live till I can be assured that the world is a little better for my having lived in it.
• I have now come to the conclusion never again to think of marrying, and for this reason; I can never be satisfied with anyone who would be blockhead enough to have me.
• It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.