Robert E. Lee
You must study to be frank with the world: Frankness is the child of honesty and courage.Collection: Courage
We should live, act, and say nothing to the injury of anyone. It is not only best as a matter of principle, but it is the path to peace and honor.Collection: Peace
We failed, but in the good providence of God apparent failure often proves a blessing.Collection: God
The war... was an unnecessary condition of affairs, and might have been avoided if forebearance and wisdom had been practiced on both sides.Collection: Wisdom
Obedience to lawful authority is the foundation of manly character.Collection: Legal
I tremble for my country when I hear of confidence expressed in me. I know too well my weakness, that our only hope is in God.Collection: Hope
A Union that can only be maintained by swords and bayonets has no charm for me. If the Union is dissolved and government disrupted, I shall return to my native state and share the miseries of my people, and save in defense will draw my sword on none.Collection: Government
In this enlightened age, there are few I believe, but what will acknowledge, that slavery as an institution is a moral & political evil in any country. It is useless to expatiate on its disadvantages.Collection: Age
What a cruel thing war is... to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors.Collection: War
It is well that war is so terrible, otherwise we should grow too fond of it.Collection: War
Never do a wrong thing to make a friend or to keep one.Collection: Friendship
We must expect reverses, even defeats. They are sent to teach us wisdom and prudence, to call forth greater energies, and to prevent our falling into greater disasters.Collection: Wisdom
I have been up to see the Congress and they do not seem to be able to do anything except to eat peanuts and chew tobacco, while my army is starving.Collection: Government
The education of a man is never completed until he dies.Collection: Education
It is good that war is so horrible, or we might grow to like it.Collection: War
Get correct views of life, and learn to see the world in its true light. It will enable you to live pleasantly, to do good, and, when summoned away, to leave without regret.Collection: Good
In all my perplexities and distresses, the Bible has never failed to give me light and strength.Collection: Strength
I cannot trust a man to control others who cannot control himself.Collection: Trust
While we see the course of the final abolition of human slavery is onward, & we give it the aid of our prayers & all justifiable means in our power, we must leave the progress as well as the result in his hands who sees the end; who chooses to work by slow influences; & with whom two thousand years are but as a single day.Collection: Power
I like whiskey. I always did, and that is why I never drink it.
We have fought this fight as long, and as well as we know how. We have been defeated. For us as a Christian people, there is now but one course to pursue. We must accept the situation.
I have fought against the people of the North because I believed they were seeking to wrest from the South its dearest rights. But I have never cherished toward them bitter or vindictive feelings, and I have never seen the day when I did not pray for them.
Do your duty in all things, like the old Puritan. You cannot do more; you should never wish to do less.
If you have any fault to find with anyone, tell him, not others, of what you complain; there is no more dangerous experiment than that of undertaking to be one thing before a man's face and another behind his back.
If a friend asks a favor, you should grant it if it is reasonable; if not, tell him plainly why you cannot: You will wrong him and wrong yourself by equivocation of any kind.
A true man of honor feels humbled himself when he cannot help humbling others.
I think it better to do right, even if we suffer in so doing, than to incur the reproach of our consciences and posterity.
The devil's name is dullness.
The trite saying that honesty is the best policy has met with the just criticism that honesty is not policy. The real honest man is honest from conviction of what is right, not from policy.
Never do a wrong thing to make a friend or keep one; the man who requires you to do so is dearly purchased at a sacrifice.
Say just what you mean to do on every occasion, and take it for granted you mean to do right.
My chief concern is to try to be an humble, earnest Christian.
The doctrines & miracles of our Saviour have required nearly two thousand years to convert but a small part of the human race, & even among Christian nations, what gross errors still exist!
A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday does not know where it is today.Collection: Yesterday
So far from engaging in a war to perpetuate slavery, I am rejoiced that Slavery is abolished. I believe it will be greatly for the interest of the South. So fully am I satisfied of this that I would have cheerfully lost all that I have lost by the war, and have suffered all that I have suffered to have this object attained.Collection: War
A land without memories is a people without liberty.Collection: Memories
Mr. Blair, I look upon secession as anarchy. If I owned the four millions of slaves in the South, I would sacrifice them all to the Union; but how can I draw my sword upon Virginia, my native State?Collection: War
There are few, I believe, in this enlightened age, who will not acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil.Collection: Believe
Let us pray for ourselves, that we may not lose the word “concern” out of our Christian vocabulary. Let us pray for our nation. Let us pray for those who have never known Jesus Christ and redeeming love, for moral forces everywhere, for our national leaders. Let prayer be our passion. Let prayer be our practice.Collection: Christian
Remember, we are all one country now. Dismiss from your mind all sectional feeling, and bring them up to be Americans.Collection: Country
I would rather die a thousand deaths than surrender.Collection: Ever After
I have always observed that wherever you find the negro, everything is going down around him, and wherever you find the white man, you see everything around him improving.Collection: Men
The consolidation of the states into one vast empire, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of ruin which has overwhelmed all that preceded it.Collection: Home
Duty, then is the sublimest word in our language. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more; you should never wish to do less.Collection: Gratitude
I can only say that I am nothing but a poor sinner, trusting in Christ alone for salvation.Collection: Civil War
With all my devotion to the Union, and the feeling of loyalty and duty of an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relative, my children, my home. I have, therefore, resigned my commission in the Army.Collection: Loyalty
All that the South has ever desired was that the Union, as established by our forefathers, should be preserved, and that the government as originally organized should be administered in purity and truth.Collection: Government
Read history, works of truth, not novels and romancesCollection: Romance
I believe it to be the duty of everyone to unite in the restoration of the country and the reestablishment of peace and harmony.Collection: Country
All I ever wanted was a Virginia farm, no end of cream and fresh butter and fried chicken - not one fried chicken, or two, but unlimited fried chicken.Collection: War