In regard to his two paged, hand written, Gettsyburg Address speech…
“It is what I would call a short, short speech,”

Pardoning a deserter as he often did, signing his name with the comment…
“Well, I think this boy can do us more good above ground than under ground.”

Lincoln’s response to critics demanding he change the emancipation policy…
“I am a slow walker, but I never walk backward.”

“I must, in all candor, say I do not think myself fit for the presidency,”

“Common-looking people are the best in the world; that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.”

“As for the nickname Abe, he hated it. No one who knew him well ever called him Abe to his face.”

When joking about his three-month stint as a military man, telling how he survived…
“a good many bloody battles with mosquitoes.”

When a rival called him two faced in a political debate…
“I leave it to my audience. If I had another face, do you think I’d wear this one?”