George Washington > Quotes

“It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.”
― George Washington

“It is better to be alone than in bad company.”
― George Washington

“It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible.”
― George Washington

“A primary object should be the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic, what species of knowledge can be equally important? And what duty more pressing than communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country?”
― George Washington

“Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to appellation. ”
― George Washington

“If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”
― George Washington

“Make sure you are doing what God wants you to do--then do it with all your strength.”
― George Washington

“Government is not reason, it is not eloquence – it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and fearful master.”
― George Washington

“In politics as in religion, my tenets are few and simple. The leading one of which, and indeed that which embraces most others, is to be honest and just ourselves and to exact it from others, meddling as little as possible in their affairs where our own are not involved. If this maxim was generally adopted, wars would cease and our swords would soon be converted into reap hooks and our harvests be more peaceful, abundant, and happy.”
― George Washington

“My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her.”
― George Washington

“I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.”
― George Washington

“A free people ought...to be armed”
― George Washington

“There is nothing which can better deserve our patronage than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness.”
― George Washington

“Human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected. ”
― George Washington

“Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.”
― George Washington

“Perseverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages.”
― George Washington

“99% of failures come from people who make excuses.”
― George Washington

“I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.”
― George Washington

“Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.”
― George Washington

“Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.
”
― George Washington

“It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.”
― George Washington

“Experience teaches us that it is much easier to prevent an enemy from posting themselves than it is to dislodge them after they have got possession. ”
― George Washington

“Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American peoples’ liberty teeth and keystone under independence... From the hour the pilgrims landed, to the present day, events, occurrences, and tendencies prove that to ensure peace, security, and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally indispensable...The very atmosphere of firearms everywhere restrains evil interference – they deserve a place of honor with all that is good.”
― George Washington

“A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government”
― George Washington

“Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the peoples’ liberty’s teeth”
― George Washington

“Worry is the intrest paid by those who borrow trouble.”
― George Washington

“If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for War.”
― George Washington

“The turning points of lives are not the great moments. The real crises are often concealed in occurrences so trivial in appearance that they pass unobserved.”
― George Washington

“Associate yourself with men of good quality, if you esteem your own reputation; for ‘tis better to be alone than in bad company.”
― George Washington

“The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”
― George Washington

“the harder the conflict, the greater the triumph.”
― George Washington

“Citizens by birth or choice of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations.”
― George Washington

“Happiness depends more upon the internal frame of a person’s own mind, than on the externals in the world.”
― George Washington

“Be courteous to all, but intimate with few; and let those be well-tried before you give them your confidence.”
― George Washington

“To persevere in one's duty, and be silent is the best answer to calumny”
― George Washington

“The propitious smiles of heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregard the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained."

Inaugural address 1789”
― George Washington

“The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country.”
― George Washington

“Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all”
― George Washington

“It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy to deprive a man of his natural liberty upon the supposition he may abuse it.”
― George Washington

“Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle”
― George Washington

“We should not look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dearly bought experience. ”
― George Washington

“Make the most of the Indian hemp seed,
and sow it everywhere!”
― George Washington

“The General is sorry to be informed that the foolish, and wicked practice, of profane cursing and swearing (a Vice heretofore little known in an American Army) is growing into fashion; he hopes the officers will, by example, as well as influence, endeavour to check it, and that both they, and the men will reflect, that we can have little hopes of the blessing of Heaven on our Arms, if we insult it by our impiety, and folly; added to this, it is a vice so mean and low, without any temptation, that every man of sense, and character, detests and despises it.

Head Quarters, New York, August 3rd 1776.
Parole Uxbridge. Countersign Virginia”
― George Washington

“No Man has a more perfect reliance on the all-wise and powerful dispensations of the Supreme Being than I have, nor thinks his aid more necessary...The man must be bad indeed who can look upon the events of the American Revolution without feeling the warmest gratitude towards the great Author of the Universe whose divine interposition was so frequently manifested in our behalf....In war He directed the sword, and in peace, He has ruled in our councils.”
― George Washington

“Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence.”
― George Washington

“if to please the people,we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterwards defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair. The rest is in the hands of God.”
― George Washington

“The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty.”
― George Washington, George Washington's Farewell Address

“As Mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality.”
― George Washington

“Paper money has had the effect in your state that it will ever have, to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open the door to every species of fraud and injustice.”
― George Washington

“Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for, I have grown not only gray, but almost blind in the service of my country.
- March 15, 1783”
― George Washington