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I am of the opinion that all who can should vote for the most intelligent, honest, and conscientious men eligible to office, irrespective of former party opinions, who will endeavour to make the new constitutions and the laws passed under them as beneficial as possible to the true interests, prosperity, and liberty of all classes and conditions of the people.
-General Robert E. Lee
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Still a Union that can only be maintained by swords and bayonets, and in which strife and civil war are to take the place of brotherly love and kindness, has no charm for me.
-General Robert E. Lee
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True patriotism sometimes requires of men to act exactly contrary, at one period, to that which it does at another, and the motive which impels themthe desire to do rightis precisely the same.
-General Robert E. Lee
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Alcohol/Alcoholism
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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.
-General Robert E. Lee
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I like whiskey. I always did, and that is why I never drink it.
-General Robert E. Lee
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Boredom
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The devil's name is dullness.
-General Robert E. Lee
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Congress
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I have been up to see the Congress and they do not seem to be able to do anything except to eat peanuts and chew tobacco, while my army is starving.
-General Robert E. Lee
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Control
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I cannot trust a man to control others who cannot control himself.
-General Robert E. Lee
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Duty
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Duty is the most sublime word in our language. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less.
-General Robert E. Lee
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Education
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The education of a man is never complete until he dies.
-General Robert E. Lee
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Friends
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Never do a wrong thing to make a friend or to keep one.
-General Robert E. Lee
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History
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My experiences of men has neither disposed me to think worse of them nor be indisposed to serve them: nor, in spite of failures which I lament, of errors which I now see and acknowledge, or the present aspect of affairs, do I despair of the future. The truth is this: The march of Providence is so slow and our desires so impatient; the work of progress so immense and our means of aiding it so feeble; the life of humanity is so long, that of the individual so brief, that we often see only the ebb of the advancing wave and are thus discouraged. It is history that teaches us to hope.
-General Robert E. Lee, letter to Lt. Colonel Charles Marshall , shortly before Lee's death , quoted in Charles Flood, 'Lee: The Last Years. 1981
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Honesty
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Private and public life are subject to the same rules; and truth and manliness are two qualities that will carry you through this world much better than policy, or tact, or expediency, or any other word that was ever devised to conceal or mystify a deviation from the straight line.
-General Robert E. Lee
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Last Words
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Let the tent be struck.
-General Robert E. Lee
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Loss
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We have fought this fight as long, and as well as we know how. We have been defeated. For us as a Christian people, there is now but one course to pursue. We must accept the situation.
-General Robert E. Lee
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Surrender
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There is nothing left for me to do but to go and see General Grant and I would rather die a thousand deaths.
-General Robert E. Lee, Said before the surrender at Appomattox, 9 April 1865
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War
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It is well that war is so terrible, else we should grow too fond of it.
-General Robert E. Lee, at the battle of Fredricksburg
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What a cruel thing is war: to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world.
-General Robert E. Lee, letter to his wife, 1864
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Wisdom
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Wisdom is nothing more than healed pain.
-General Robert E. Lee
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Books by and about General Robert E. Lee