The Life of George Washington Quotes

“when men of the George Washington type fast and pray on account of political misdoings, it is well for their opponents to look to it carefully.”
― Henry Cabot Lodge, The Life of George Washington: Complete Edition

“Genuinely profitable farming in Virginia was not common, for the general system was a bad one. A single great staple, easily produced by the reckless exhaustion of land, and varying widely in the annual value of crops, bred improvidence and speculation. Everything was bought upon long credits, given by the London merchants, and this, too, contributed largely to carelessness and waste. The chronic state of a planter in a business way was one of debt, and the lack of capital made his conduct of affairs extravagant and loose. With all his care and method Washington himself was often pinched for ready money, and it was only by his thoroughness and foresight that he prospered and made money while so many of his neighbors struggled with debt and lived on in easy luxury, not knowing what the morrow might bring forth.”
― Henry Cabot Lodge, The Life of George Washington: Complete Edition