Nothing discloses real character like the use of power. It is easy for the weak to be gentle. Most people can bear adversity; but if you wish to know what a man really is give him power. This is the supreme test. It is the glory of Lincoln that, having almost absolute power, he never used it except on the side of mercy. He would never turn a man out of even the smallest office, and leave a stain upon his name, without having given him full and ample hearing. He loved to pardon. He loved to see the tears of joy upon the cheeks of a wife whose husband he had rescued from death.


--Robert G. Ingersoll