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

“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

“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

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

“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

“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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“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 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

“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