Robert E. Lee Quotes - Page 5

Private and public life are subject to the same rules-truth and manliness are two qualities that will carry you through this world much better than policy or tact of expediency or other words that were devised to conceal a deviation from a straight line.

You cannot be a true man until you learn to obey.

Say what you mean to do...and take it for granted you mean to do right. Never do a wrong thing to make a friend or keep one...you will wrong him and wrong yourself by equivocation of any kind.

I endeavored to give thanks to our Heavenly Father for all his mercies to me, for his preservation of me through all the dangers I have passed, and all the blessings which he has bestowed upon me, for I know I fall far short of my obligations

The questions which for years were in dispute between the State and General Government, and which unhappily were not decided by the dictates of reason, but referred to the decision of war, having been decided against us, it is the part of wisdom to acquiesce in the result, and of candor to recognize the fact.

But what a cruel thing is war to separate and destroy families and friends.

History teaches us hope.

Respect is based on Friendship,and friendship is based on love and love is so accidental isn't it ?

We must forgive our enemies.

A true man of honor feels humbled himself when he cannot help humbling others.

It is easier to make our wishes conform to our means than to make our means conform to our wishes.

Life Insurance trusts I consider sacred. To hazard the property of the dead & to lose the scanty earnings of fathers & husbands, who have toiled & saved that they may leave something to their families deprived of their care & the support of their labour, is to my mind the worst of crimes.

My experience through life has convinced me that, while moderation and temperance in all things are commendable and beneficial, abstinence from spirituous liquors is the best safeguard of morals and health.

Go home all you boys who fought with me and help build up the shattered fortunes of our old state

He has lost his left arm, but I my right.

No blame can be attached to the army for its failure to accomplish what was projected by me... I alone am to blame, in perhaps expecting too much of its prowess and valor... could I have foreseen that the attack on the last day would fail, I should certainly have tried some other course... but I do not know what better course I could have pursued.

My heart bleeds at the death of every one of our gallant men.

There is nothing left for me to do but to go and see General Grant and I would rather die a thousand deaths.

There is always hazard in military activity, but we must decide between the positive loss of inactivity and the risk of action.

I pray that on this day [Christmas] when only peace and good-will are preached to mankind, better thoughts may fill the hearts of our enemies and turn them to peace.

Let us go home and cultivate our virtues.

Many opportunities have been lost and hundreds of valuable lives uselessly sacrificed for want of a strict observance of discipline. Its object is to enable an army to bring promptly into action the largest possible number of its men, in good order and under the control of their officers. Its effects are visible in all military history, which records the triumphs of discipline and courage far more frequently than those of numbers and resources.

Whither shall I flee? To no country on earth that I know of where there is as much liberty as yet remains to me even in Virginia.

For I consider the character of no man affected by a want of success, provided he has made an honest effort to succeed.

The devil's name is dullness.