In law it is good policy never to plead what you need not, lest you oblige yourself to prove what you cannot

Whoever mounds public sentiment, goes deeper than he who enacts statutes, or pronounces judicial decisions.

The severest justice may not always be the best policy

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds. . . to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting pea

When you have got an elephant by the hind legs and he is trying to run away, it's best to let him run

I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to
succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have.