The severest justice may not always be the best policy

If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how -- the very best I can. And I mean to keep on doing it to the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me will not amount to anything. If the end brings me out all wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.

He reminds me of the man who murdered both his parents, and then when sentence was about to be pronounced pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan

I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.

I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.

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