Lincoln (1988)

Sam Waterston: Abraham Lincoln

Quotes 

• Abraham Lincoln : There is nothing more like eternity than a train ride of eleven days, unless it's two people and a ham.

• Office seeker #1 : Mr. Lincoln, I'm a life-long republican from Duchess County.

  Abraham Lincoln : Life long? But our party is only six years old!

  Office seeker #1 : That's right, life long!

• Abraham Lincoln : To run away when someone is shooting guns at you is a sensible reaction, I think it would be my own.

  Abraham Lincoln : Faced with a battery of guns, I might find myself some nice tree to rest behind.

• Abraham Lincoln : Do you know what this is, Brother Washburne?

  Congressman Elihu Washburne : The Army of the Potomac.

  Abraham Lincoln : No, it is General MacClellen's bodyguard!

• Abraham Lincoln : [about Edward Everett's speech]  My God! The man will speak for three hours before I even get to my feet, so I have prepared a short, short speech.

  [Gettysburg Address] 

• Abraham Lincoln : Molly, if there was any danger to an officer on a generals staff at all, they'd call off the war.

• Mary Lincoln : Replace him!

  [MacClellen] 

  Abraham Lincoln : With who?

  Mary Lincoln : Anybody!

  Abraham Lincoln : That's the problem, Molly, I can't have anybody, I must have somebody.

• Abraham Lincoln : I can make a general any time, but horse costs the government 125 dollars

• Abraham Lincoln : I like Grant, he takes what we give him, and he doesn't ask for the moon.

• Abraham Lincoln : The problem is not my getting killed, Ward, I expect I shall some day. There is no way to stop it. What I fear is being captured by rebels and held for ransom.

  Ward Hill Lamon : How much do you think the rebels would ask for you?

  Abraham Lincoln : It's not how much, it's how many. They want their prisoners of war back. One ugly President swapped for a 100,000 soldiers would be very tempting to 'ol Jeff Davis. You see, sooner or later they will run out of men and we won't. And that's how we'll win.