MARY TODD LINCOLN

My evil genius Procrastination has whispered me to tarry 'til a more convenient season.

Clouds and darkness surround us, yet Heaven is just, and the day of triumph will surely come, when justice and truth will be vindicated.

If you keep making jokes like that, somebody is going to shoot you, father.

I don't think I'm allowed to talk about that. It is definitely not me. The role has been cast.

Others live on in a careless and lukewarm state - not appearing to fill Longfellow's measure: 'Into each life, some rain must fall.'

He is a butcher, and is not fit to be at the head of an army.

If he [Abraham Lincoln] is re-elected I can keep him in ignorance of my affairs, but if he is defeated, then the bills will be sent in, and he will know all.

If he is reelected, I can keep him in ignorance of my affairs.

My position requires my presence but it is so far from my heart.

I must dress in costly materials. People scrutinize every article I wear with critical curiosity. The very fact of having grown up in the West, subjects me to more searching observation.

This fall I became quite a politician, rather an unladylike profession ...

Tell me, how can I live without my Husband any longer? This is my first awakening thought each morning, and as I watch the waves of the turbulent lake under our windows I sometimes feel I should like to go under them.

Mr. Lincoln's maxim and philosophy were: 'What is to be, will be, and no prayers of ours can arrest the decree.' He never joined any Church. He was a religious man always, I think, but was not a technical Christian.

Beautiful, Glorious Scotland, has spoilt me for every other country.

In grief, words are a poor consolation - silence and agonizing tears are all that is left the sufferer.

He (Abraham Lincoln) said he wanted to visit the Holy Land and see those places hallowed by the footprints of the Saviour. He was saying there was no city he so much desired to see as Jerusalem. And with the words half spoken on his tongue, the bullet of the assassin entered the brain, and the soul of the great and good President was carried by the angels to the New Jerusalem above.

Clouds and darkness surround us, yet Heaven is just, and the day of triumph will surely come, when justice and truth will be vindicated. Our wrongs will be made right, and we will once more taste the blessings of freedom

I am convinced, the longer I live, that life & its blessings are not so entirely unjustly distributed, are [as] when we are suffering greatly, we are inclined to suppose.

Mr. Lincoln had no hope, and no faith, in the usual acceptation of those words.

I explain to you, exactly and truly, how we are circumstanced. A greater portion of our means is unavailable, consisting of a house in S. Springfield and some wild lands in Iowa. Notwithstanding my great and good husband's life was sacrificed for his country, we are left to struggle in a manner...of life undeserved. Roving Generals have elegant mansions showered upon them, and the American people leave the family of the Martyred President to struggle as best they may! Strange justice this.