“There lies the most perfect ruler of men the world has ever seen. Now he belongs to the ages.”
At Lincoln's death (15 April 1865), as quoted in Abraham Lincoln: A History (1890) by John George Nicolay and John Hay, p. 302
Though "Now he belongs to the ages" is by far the most accepted quotation of this remark, it is sometimes contended that he said "Now he belongs to the angels" but occurrences of this date back only a very few years.. Stanton had originally opposed Lincoln, dubbing him "The Original Gorilla" because of his looks and frontier speech, but eventually grew to admire him.