Shelby Foote said this quote

A visitor asked Lincoln what good news he could take home from an audience with the august executive. The president spun a story about a machine that baffled a chess champion by beating him thrice. The stunned champ cried while inspecting the machine, There's a man in there!Lincoln's good news, he confided from the heights of leadership, was that there was in fact a man in there.

~ Shelby Foote

He is the kind of person I should expect to rescue one from a mad dog at any risk but then insist on a stoical indifference to the fright afterward. Jefferson Davis's future wife describing him at first meeting.

~ Shelby Foote

On Lee as commander: He had a cheerful dignity and could praise them (his men) without seeming to court their favor.

~ Shelby Foote

Right now I'm thinking a good deal about emancipation. One of our sins was slavery, another was emancipation. It's a paradox. In theory, emancipation was one of the glories of our democracy - and it was. But the way it was done led to tragedy, turning four million people loose with no jobs or trades or learning. And then in 1877 for a few electoral votes, just abandoning them entirely. A huge amount of pain and trouble resulted. Everybody in America is still paying for it.

~ Shelby Foote