"Tears are often the telescope by which men see far into heaven."

"Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody expects of you. Never excuse yourself."

"Well married a person has wings, poorly married shackles."

"You have come into a hard world. I know of only one easy place in it, and that is the grave."

"The ability to convert ideas to things is the secret of outward success."

"Every man should be born again on the first day of January. Start with a fresh page. Take up one hole more in the buckle if necessary, or let down one, according to circumstances; but on the first of January let every man gird himself once more, with his face to the front, and take no interest in the things that were and are past."

"Affliction comes to us, not to make us sad but sober; not to make us sorry but wise."

"In this world it is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich."

"Good nature is worth more than knowledge, more than money, more than honor, to the persons who possess it."

"We should not judge people by their peak of excellence; but by the distance they have traveled from the point where they started."

"Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made and forgot to put a soul into."

"We never know the love of a parent till we become parents ourselves."

"The dog is the god of frolic."

"While living in America when I attended Harvard in the early 1970s, I saw for myself the awesome, almost miraculous, power of a people to change policy through democratic means."

"I seek to lead a democratic Pakistan which is free from the yoke of military dictatorship and that will cease to be a haven, the very petri dish of international terrorism."

"All through the years of the Soviet empire, its Politburo held 'elections.' Of course, calling something an election and actually having it be an election are different things."

"All through the years of the Soviet empire, its Politburo held 'elections.' Of course, calling something an election and actually having it be an election are different things."

"The next few months are critical to Pakistan's future direction as a democratic state committed to promoting peace, fighting terrorism and working for social justice."

"Given the right to a free ballot, the people would support my return."

"The military destabilised my government on politically motivated charges."

"The military wants a system that protects its policies and privileges."

"General Musharraf needs my participation to give credibility to the electoral process, as well as to respect the fundamental right of all those who wish to vote for me."

"I am constitutionally competent to contest the elections."

"I've never had a bank account in Switzerland since 1984. Why would the Swiss do this to me? Maybe the Swiss are trying to divert attention from the Holocaust gold scandal."

"It's true that General Musharraf opposes my return, seeing me as a symbol of democracy in the country. He is comfortable with dictatorship. I hope better sense prevails."

"I am planning to return and contest the October elections in Pakistan."

"The Holy Book calls upon Muslims to resist tyranny. Dictatorships in Pakistan, however long, have, therefore, always collapsed in the face of this spirit."

"The United Nations charter gives every nation the right to self defence, therefore when the American embassies were bombed it was a matter of time before the Americans responded by going for what they suspected were the causes of the attack."

"In 1988, when democracy was restored, the military establishment was still very powerful. The extremist groups were still there. And when the aid and assistance to Pakistan was cut, we had to adopt harsh economic policies. So in a way, it showed that democracy doesn't pay, and the military was able to reassert itself."

"The legal right of the Southern people to reclaim their fugitives I have constantly admitted. The legal right of Congress to interfere with their institution in the states, I have constantly denied."

"I go for all sharing the privileges of the government, who assist in bearing its burdens. Consequently, I go for admitting all whites to the right of suffrage, who pay taxes or bear arms (by no means excluding females)."

"Being elected to Congress, though I am very grateful to our friends for having done it, has not pleased me as much as I expected."

"I can express all my views on the slavery question by quotations from Henry Clay."

"'A living dog is better than a dead lion.' Judge Douglas, if not a dead lion for this work, is at least a caged and toothless one. How can he oppose the advances of slavery? He don't care anything about it."

"Why was the amendment, expressly declaring the right of the people to exclude slavery, voted down? Plainly enough now, the adoption of it would have spoiled the niche for the Dred Scott decision."

"I do not expect the Union to be dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other."

"If the people of Utah shall peacefully form a State Constitution tolerating polygamy, will the Democracy admit them into the Union?"

"It is a quality of revolutions not to go by old lines or old laws, but to break up both and make new ones."

"I have great respect for the semicolon; it is a mighty handy little fellow."

"Nothing new here, except my marrying, which to me is a matter of profound wonder."

"Illinois surpasses every other spot of equal extent upon the face of the globe in fertility of soil and in the proportionable amount of the same which is sufficiently level for actual cultivation."

"My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families - second families, perhaps I should say."

"It is a great piece of folly to attempt to make anything out of my early life."

"I perhaps ought to say that individually I never was much interested in the Texas question. I never could see much good to come of annexation, inasmuch as they were already a free republican people on our own model."

"It has so happened in all ages of the world that some have labored, and others have, without labor, enjoyed a large proportion of the fruits."

"I have always been an old-line Henry Clay Whig."

"No policy that does not rest upon some philosophical public opinion can be permanently maintained."

"It is rather for us here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion."

"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."

"It's not easy taking my problems one at a time when they refuse to get in line."