Washington's Farewell Quotes

“While freedom can be a state of nature, liberty requires a degree of self-discipline. It is the essence of self-governance.”
― John Avlon, Washington's Farewell: The Founding Father's Warning to Future Generations

“But the demagogues and regional divisions that troubled Washington still afflicted the nation with 'ill-founded jealousies and false alarms,' spreading the flames of faction under the cover of pretend patriotism, fueled by a fundamental misreading of the Constitution.”
― John P. Avlon, Washington's Farewell: The Founding Father's Warning to Future Generations

“But the greatest danger could spring from the chaos of a dysfunctional democracy, compounded by relentless party warfare, which, Washington warned, would erode faith in the effectiveness of self-governance and open the door to a demagogue with authoritarian ambitions. '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.”
― John P. Avlon, Washington's Farewell: The Founding Father's Warning to Future Generations

“Fourth and finally, Washington made a passionate case for cultivating an identity as American citizens that would elevate national unity over local loyalties, inducing “them to forget their local prejudices and policies, to make those mutual concessions which are requisite to the general prosperity, and in some instances, to sacrifice their individual advantages to the interest of the community.”
― John Avlon, Washington's Farewell: The Founding Father's Warning to Future Generations

“Washington’s Farewell Address was not read aloud before an audience. Instead of delivering the news like a European king, he delivered it directly to the American people through one of the 100 newspapers in the nation. He”
― John Avlon, Washington's Farewell: The Founding Father's Warning to Future Generations

“Madison’s response is famously expressed in Federalist 10, “The Utility of the Union as a Safeguard against Domestic Faction and Insurrection”—arguing that tyranny of the majority was most likely to occur in small republics. When a republic holds a critical mass of diverse interests, no single group is likely to hold the upper hand for long. The combination of diversity and size serves as a cooling mechanism on more heated local passions and prejudices. In a large republic, the necessity of cobbling together broad governing coalitions means that narrow self-interest is forced to give way to a more enlightened self-interest, in the recognition that pursuing the common good can bring about mutual benefits.I”
― John Avlon, Washington's Farewell: The Founding Father's Warning to Future Generations

“History is a story we learn, add on our own chapter, and then pass to the next generation.”
― John P. Avlon, Washington's Farewell: The Founding Father's Warning to Future Generations

“GW: 'Vigilant citizens are required to keep parties focused on serving the people rather than the unprincipled pursuit of power that divides in order to conquer”
― John P. Avlon, Washington's Farewell: The Founding Father's Warning to Future Generations

“Eisenhower also sounded the clarion call for generational responsibility: 'As we peer into society's future, we--you and I, and our government--must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without asking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come.”
― John P. Avlon, Washington's Farewell: The Founding Father's Warning to Future Generations

“Ultimately, the overarching prescription from President Eisenhower was similar to what Washington had counseled as the ultimate check and balance: vigorous citizenship.

In a democracy, political father figures are never the last sources of responsibility. 'Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry,' Ike advised, 'can compel the proper meshing of the huge industry and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”
― John P. Avlon, Washington's Farewell: The Founding Father's Warning to Future Generations

“Against the insidious wiles of foreign influences... the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government.”
― John P. Avlon, Washington's Farewell: The Founding Father's Warning to Future Generations

“The backstory of the back-and-forth during composition [...] makes it clear that Washington's insistence on elevating public education was based on a deep and urgent insight: that democracies' success depended on an educated and enlightened population.”
― John P. Avlon, Washington's Farewell: The Founding Father's Warning to Future Generations

“This pep talk was sometimes combined with a rueful reminder to himself about the loneliness of ethical leadership: 'the post of honor is a private station.”
― John P. Avlon, Washington's Farewell: The Founding Father's Warning to Future Generations

“Copied in young Washington's enviably neat rolling script, the rules ranged from table manners ('talk not with meat in your mouth') to respectable behavior ('Let your countenance be pleasant but in serious matters somewhat grave') to guidelines for picking friends ('Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for 'tis better to be alone than in bad company'). Washington had drilled into him the premise of follow-through ('Undertake not what you cannot perform but be careful to keep your promise') and perhaps most important, the fidelity to what Lincoln would later call 'the better angels of our nature' ('Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience').”
― John P. Avlon, Washington's Farewell: The Founding Father's Warning to Future Generations

“In Washington's view, we must transcend our tribalism to survive.”
― John P. Avlon, Washington's Farewell: The Founding Father's Warning to Future Generations

“A strong sense of citizenship--a new concept in a new nation--was essential to securing the Union. And when he used the word American in this section of the manuscript, he underlined the term twice for emphasis.”
― John P. Avlon, Washington's Farewell: The Founding Father's Warning to Future Generations

“Foreign influence in domestic politics could be deadly to any democracy.”
― John P. Avlon, Washington's Farewell: The Founding Father's Warning to Future Generations

“By reading the text out loud to an affectionate audience, Hamilton was applying the old speechwriter's trick of writing for the ear as well as the eye, despite the fact that he knew the speech would be printed in a newspaper and not spoken. He was writing for a larger audience: posterity rather than simply this president.”
― John P. Avlon, Washington's Farewell: The Founding Father's Warning to Future Generations

“Experience has taught us that men will not adopt and carry into execution measures the best calculated for their own good without the intervention of a coercive power.' A strong central government led by an effective executive was needed, as Washington had warned.”
― John P. Avlon, Washington's Farewell: The Founding Father's Warning to Future Generations

“In the eternal balance between individual rights and community obligations, Washington believed that there were times that the national interest trumped individual self-interest.”
― John P. Avlon, Washington's Farewell: The Founding Father's Warning to Future Generations