"Didn't you know? All mild men are vicious. They hate themselves for being mild, and they hate the windy extroverts whose violence seems to have a strange attraction for nice girls. You should know better."

"Anthony Franciosa - Joey DePalma"

"[about TV] You gotta be a saint to stand off the power that little box can give you."

"Kay Medford - First Mrs. Rhodes"

"You know, back in my little old town of Riddle, we had a cousin named Harry. We all called him Cousin 'Hurry' because he was always runnin' someplace. Till one day he fell down a flight of steps and broke his fool neck. We put a sign on his grave says: 'He was in such a hurry, he just couldn't wait to get here.'"

"[to Marcia, as they leave Pickett for Memphis] Boy, am I glad to shake that dump. [pause] I was only kiddin', honey. You ought to know me better than to believe everything I say. Ha! [to the crowd] Bye! Bye! Good-bye and God bless you, good people!"

"Ain't nothin' in this world you can't do when you let the best side of you take over."

"You know, ma'am, whenever a bunch of fellas like us - outcasts, hoboes, nobodies, gentlemen loafers, one-time or all-time losers, call us what you want to. Whenever we get together, we tell our funny stories. Me and Beanie and the rest of these hand-to-mouth tumbleweed boys like you see in here. [singing] If whiskey don't get us, then women must. And it looks like I'm never gonna cease my wandering."

"Respect? Did you ever hear of anyone buying any product - beer, hair rinse, tissue - because they respect it? You gotta be loved, man. Loved....Politics is people...Senator, I'm a professional. And I have to look at the image on that screen same as I'd look at a performer on my show. And I'll have to say he'll never get over to my audience. Not to the 65 million people who welcome me into their living rooms each week. And if I wouldn't buy him, do you realize what that means? If I wouldn't buy him, the people of this country aren't ready to buy him for that big job on Pennsylvania Avenue."

"They love his voice, they love his guitar, they love his ideas... they should know some of his ideas."

"Ain't Mama a beauty? Oh, a guitar beats a woman every time! You know, I never have seen a woman I could trust like this old guitar. I love my Mama guitar. She's always there waitin' for me to pick her up and hold her. Never asks me for money or goes cheatin' around when I ain't lookin'. And if she gets a little sour, why, I just give her a little twist like so, and we're right back in tune together."

"I'm not just an entertainer. I'm an influence, a wielder of opinion, a force... a force!"

"[about the writers] Here you see the lepers of the great television industry. Men without faces. Why, they even slide our paychecks under the door so they can pretend we're not here."

"Michael Stuhlbarg - Kentucky Democratic Congressman George Yeaman"

"Boris McGiver - Democratic Congressman, later Republican, Alexander Coffroth"

"Walton Goggins - Democratic Congressman Wells A. Hutchins"

"Stephen Spinella - Radical Republican Congressman Asa Vintner Litton"

"John Hawkes - Republican operative Colonel Robert Latham"

"Bill Raymond - Schuyler Colfax"

"David Warshofsky - Democratic Congressmann William Hutton"

"David Costabile - Republican Congressman James Ashley"

"Dakin Matthews- Secretary of the Interior John Palmer Usher"

"Jared Harris - Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant"

"Bruce McGill - Secretary of War Edwin Stanton"

"James Spader - Republican Party operative William N. Bilbo"

"Lee Pace - Democratic Congressman Fernando Wood"

"Tim Blake Nelson - lobbyist Richard Schell"

"Wayne Duvall - Radical Republican Senator Benjamin "Bluff Ben" Wade"

"Peter McRobbie - Democratic Congressman George H. Pendleton"

"Daniel Day-Lewis - President Abraham Lincoln"

"Sally Field - First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln"

"Euclid's first common notion is this: "Things which are equal to the same thing are equal to each other." That's a rule of mathematical reasoning. It's true because it works; has done and will always will do. In his book, Euclid says this is "self-evident." You see, there it is, even in that two-thousand year old book of mechanical law: it is a self-evident truth of things which are equal to the same thing, are equal to each other. We begin with equality. That's the origin, isn't it? That balance—that's fairness, that's justice."

"David Strathairn - Secretary of State William H. Seward"

"I heard tell once of a Jeff City lawyer who had a parrot that'd wake him each morning crying out, "Today is the day the world shall end, as scripture has foretold." And one day the lawyer shot him for the sake of peace and quiet, I presume. Thus fulfilling, for the bird at least, his prophecy!"

"[to Cabinet members] As the preacher said; "I could write shorter sermons, but once I start I get too lazy to stop.""

"Tommy Lee Jones - Radical Republican Congressional leader Thaddeus Stevens"

"It was right after the Revolution, right after peace had been concluded. And Ethan Allen went to London to help our new country conduct its business with the king. The English sneered at how rough we are and rude and simple-minded and on like that, everywhere he went. Til one day he was invited to the townhouse of a great English lord. Dinner was served, beverages imbibed, time passed as happens and Mr. Allen found he needed the privy. He was grateful to be directed thence. Relieved, you might say. Mr. Allen discovered on entering the water closet that the only decoration therein was a portrait of George Washington. Ethan Allen done what he came to do and returned to the drawing room. His host and the others were disappointed when he didn't mention Washington's portrait. And finally his lordship couldn't resist and asked Mr. Allen had he noticed it - the picture of Washington - he had. Well what did he think of its placement? Did it seem appropriately located to Mr. Allen? And Mr. Allen said it did. The host was astounded. [mocking British accent] "Appropriate? George Washington's likeness in a water closet?" "Yes," said Mr. Allen, "where it will do good service. The whole world knows nothing will make an Englishman shit quicker than the sight of George Washington." I love that story."

"The part assigned to me is to raise the flag, which, if there be no fault in the machinery, I will do, and when up, it'll be for the people to keep it up. That's my speech."

"Hal Holbrook - Francis Preston Blair"

"Jackie Earle Haley - Confederate States Vice President Alexander H. Stephens"

"Gregory Itzin - John Archibald Campbell"

"Stephen Henderson - Lincoln's valet William Slade"

"Gloria Reuben - Elizabeth Keckley"

"Joseph Gordon-Levitt - Robert Todd Lincoln"

"Gulliver McGrath - Tad Lincoln"

"S. Epatha Merkerson - Lydia Smith"

"We are once again asked - nay, commanded - to consider a proposed thirteenth amendment which, if passed, shall set at immediate liberty four million coloreds while manacling the limbs of the white race in America. If it is passed - but it shall not pass!"