"Whatever be the effect of slavery upon the States where it exists, there can be no doubt that its moral influence upon the North has been most disastrous. It has compelled our politicians into that first fatal compromise with their moral instincts and hereditary principles which makes all consequent ones easy; it has accustomed us to makeshifts instead of statesmanship, to subterfuge instead of policy, to party-platforms for opinions, and to a defiance of the public sentiment of the civilized world for patriotism."

"Our Pilgrim stock wuz pithed with hardihood."

"Soft-heartedness, in times like these, Shows sof'ness in the upper story."

"Our papers don't purtend to print on'y wut Guv'ment choose, An' thet insures us all to git the very best o' noose."

"No, never say nothin' without you're compelled tu, An' then don't say nothin' thet you can be held tu."

"The surest plan to make a Man Is, think him so."

"Earth's biggest country 's gut her soul, An' risen up earth's greatest nation."

"Bad work follers ye ez long's ye live."

"The one thet fust gits mad 's 'most ollers wrong."

"Folks never understand the folks they hate."

"It's 'most enough to make a deacon swear."

"Under the yaller pines I house, When sunshine makes 'em all sweet-scented, An' hear among their furry boughs The baskin' west-wind purr contented."

"Like streams that keep a summer mind Snow-hid in Jenooary."

"My gran'ther's rule was safer 'n 'tis to crow: Don't never prophesy — onless ye know."

"Ef you want peace, the thing you've gut tu du Is jes' to show you're up to fightin', tu."

"All kin' o' smily round the lips, An' teary round the lashes."

"She thought no v'ice hed sech a swing Ez hisn in the choir; My! when he made Ole Hunderd ring She knowed the Lord was nigher."

"His heart kep' goin' pity-pat, But hern went pity-Zekle."

"'T was kin' o' kingdom-come to look On sech a blessed cretur."

"Zekle crep' up quite unbeknown An' peeked in thru' the winder, An there sot Huldy all alone, 'ith no one nigh to hender."

"The very room, coz she was in, Seemed warm from floor to ceilin'"

"To say why gals acts so or so, Or don't, 'ould be persumin'; Mebby to mean yes an' say no Comes nateral to women."

"God makes sech nights, all white an' still, Fur'z you can look or listen, Moonshine an' snow on field an' hill, All silence an' all glisten."

"It ain't by princerples nor men My preudunt course is steadied— I scent wich pays the best, an' then Go into it baldheaded."

"Of my merit On thet pint you yourself may jedge; All is, I never drink no sperit, Nor I haint never signed no pledge."

"I don't believe in princerple, But oh I du in interest."

"He stood a spell on one foot fust Then stood a spell on t' other, An' on which one he felt the wust He could n't ha' told ye nuther."

"Wut's words to them whose faith an' truth On war's red techstone rang true metal; Who ventered life an' love an' youth For the gret prize o' death in battle?"

"A marciful Providunce fashioned us holler O' purpose thet we might our principles swaller."

"I du believe with all my soul In the gret Press's freedom, To pint the people to the goal An' in the traces lead 'em."

"Ez to my princerples, I glory In hevin' nothin' o' the sort."

"But John P. Robinson, he Sez they did n't know everythin' down in Judee."

"Laborin' man an' laborin' woman Hev one glory an' one shame; Ev'y thin' thet's done inhuman Injers all on 'em the same."

"’Tain’t by turnin’ out to hack folks You’re agoin’ to git your right, Nor by lookin’ down on black folks Coz you’re put upon by white; Slavery ain’t o’ nary color, ’Tain’t the hide thet makes it wus, All it keers fer in a feller ’S jest to make him fill its pus."

"Ef you take a sword an’ dror it, An’ go stick a feller thru, Guv’mint ain’t to answer for it, God’ll send the bill to you."

"Ez fer war, I call it murder— There you hev it plain an' flat; I don't want to go no furder Than my Testyment fer that."

"The clear, sweet singer with the crown of snow Not whiter than the thoughts that housed below."

"You've gut to git up airly Ef you want to take in God."

"This goin' ware glory waits ye haint one agreeable feetur."

"Nature fits all her children with something to do, He who would write and can't write, can surely review."

"In vain we call old notions fudge, And bend our conscience to our dealing; The Ten Commandments will not budge, And stealing will continue stealing."

"In a society like ours, where every man may transmute his private thought into history and destiny by dropping it into the ballot-box, a peculiar responsibility rests upon the individual. Nothing can absolve us from doing our best to look at all public questions as citizens, and therefore in some sort as administrators and rulers. For, though during its term of office the government be practically as independent of the popular will as that of Russia, yet every fourth year the people are called upon to pronounce upon the conduct of their affairs."

"Let us be of good cheer, however, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never come."

"And I honor the man who is willing to sink Half his present repute for the freedom to think, And, when he has thought, be his cause strong or weak, Will risk t'other half for the freedom to speak, Caring naught for what vengeance the mob has in store, Let that mob be the upper ten thousand or lower."

"Be noble! and the nobleness that lies In other men, sleeping but never dead, Will rise in majesty to meet thine own."

"There comes Poe, with his raven, like Barnaby Rudge, Three-fifths of him genius and two-fifths sheer fudge."

"We kind o' thought Christ went agin war an' pillage."

"In creating, the only hard thing's to begin; A grass-blade's no easier to make than an oak, If you've once found the way you've achieved the grand stroke."

"There comes Emerson first, whose rich words, every one, Are like gold nails in temples to hang trophies on; Whose prose is grand verse while his verse the Lord knows Is some of it pr— No, 't is not even prose!"