“I cannot remember a night so dark as to have hindered the coming day.”

I never wanted to fight against the Union, but could not turn my back on Virginia.

Had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great, or in behalf of any of their friends…every man in this court would have deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than punishment.

Be mild with the mild, shrewd with the crafty, confiding to the honest, rough to the ruffian, and a thunderbolt to the liar. But in all this, never be unmindful of your own dignity.

Tis mean for empty praise of wit to write, As fopplings grin to show their teeth are white.

Holiness does not consist in mystic speculations, enthusiastic fervours, or uncommanded austerities; it consists in thinking as God thinks, and willing as God wills.

The angels are ministering spirits; they are not governing spirits.

Caution, Sir! I am eternally tired of hearing that word caution. It is nothing but the word of cowardice!

I am gaining in health slowly, and am quite cheerful in view of my approaching end, – being fully persuaded that I am worth inconceivably more to hang than any other purpose.

It is not a case we are treating; it is a living, palpitating, alas, too often suffering fellow creature.

The intent and not the deed Is in our power; and, therefore, who dares greatly Does greatly.

Here, before God, in the presence of these witnesses, from this time, I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery!

I am quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think vainly, flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done.

The same eye cannot both look up to heaven and down to earth.

I think every family should have a dog; it is like having a perpetual baby; it is the plaything and crony of the whole house. It keeps them all young.

I am worth inconceivably more to hang than for any other purpose.

These men are all talk; What is needed is action – action!

You live these three months in this reality, in this dark reality, you don’t want to do those films every year because they’re taxing. I started smoking a lot of cigarettes.

When it comes, you’ll be dreaming that you don’t need to breathe; that breathless silence is the music of the dark and it’s part of the rhythm to vanish like a spark.

Dark, dark! The horror of darkness, like a shroud, wraps me and bears me on through mist and cloud.

But the power of destiny is something awesome; neither wealth, nor Ares, nor a tower, nor dark-hulled ships might escape it.

Why live in the darkness all your life? Why, if you are unhappy, if you are having a miserable time, why not just look at it? Why are you in the darkness? Look for the light. The light is within.

I’m not really afraid of the dark, except if I’m walking. The thing that scares me the most is the possibility of walking into a wall and busting my lip.

Certainly I have no attraction to misery. I don’t intentionally go for dark.

Is it the fault of wine if a fool drinks it and goes stumbling into darkness?