Robert E. Lee

Cadets can neither be treated as schoolboys or soldiers.

They seemed so united that I loved them as one person." Lee wrote of his son and daughter-in-law on his daughter-in-law's death.

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.

Read history, works of truth, not novels and romances

It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it.

I cannot trust a man to control others who cannot control himself.

Obedience to lawful authority is the foundation of manly character.

We must expect reverses, even defeats. They are sent to teach us wisdom and prudence, to call forth greater energies, and to prevent our falling into greater disasters.

The education of a man is never completed until he dies.

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.

A Union that can only be maintained by swords and bayonets has no charm for me. If the Union is dissolved and government disrupted, I shall return to my native state and share the miseries of my people, and save in defense will draw my sword on none.

Never do a wrong thing to make a friend or to keep one.

You must study to be frank with the world: Frankness is the child of honesty and courage.

We should live, act, and say nothing to the injury of anyone. It is not only best as a matter of principle, but it is the path to peace and honor.

The trite saying that honesty is the best policy has met with the just criticism that honesty is not policy. The real honest man is honest from conviction of what is right, not from policy.

In this enlightened age, there are few I believe, but what will acknowledge, that slavery as an institution is a moral & political evil in any country. It is useless to expatiate on its disadvantages.

In all my perplexities and distresses, the Bible has never failed to give me light and strength.

While we see the course of the final abolition of human slavery is onward, & we give it the aid of our prayers & all justifiable means in our power, we must leave the progress as well as the result in his hands who sees the end; who chooses to work by slow influences; & with whom two thousand years are but as a single day.