George Washington Quotes (182 Quotes)


    Almighty God, we make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United States in Thy holy protection that Thou wilt incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government

    Following his brief inaugural address to the Congress, President George Washington and his party walked over to St. Pauls Church for divine services. His prayer that afternoon was 'Almighty God, we make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another and for their fellow-citizens of the United States at large.'

    I am sure that never was a people, who had more reason to acknowledge a Divine interposition in their affairs, than those of the United States and I should be pained to believe that they have forgotten that agency, which was so often manifested during our Revolution, or that they failed to consider the omnipotence of that God who is alone able to protect them.


    I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of slavery.


    Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation. It is better be alone than in bad company.

    Why should I expect to be exempt from censure the unfailing lot of an elevated station My Heart tells me it has been my unremitted aim to do the best circumstances would permit yet, I may have been very often mistaken in my judgment of the means,


    In a free and republican government, you cannot restrain the voice of the multitude

    Laws made by common consent must not be trampled on by individuals.

    Let your countenance be pleasant, but in serious matters, let it be somewhat grave.

    Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, called conscience.

    I know patriotism exists, and I know it has done much in the present contest. But a great and lasting war can never be supported on thisprinciple alone. It must be aided by a prospect of interest, or some reward.


    Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness


    The foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing is a vice so mean and low that every person of sense and character detests and despises it.

    Reason, too late perhaps, may convince you of the folly of misspending time.


    Many Founding Fathers wrote extensively on the subject. Thomas Jefferson said, What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance Let them take arms. ... A free people ought to be armed.

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

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

    I go to the chair of government with feelings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place of his execution.

    I know of no pursuit in which more real and important services can be rendered to any country than by improving its agriculture, its breed of useful animals, and other branches of a husbandman's cares.

    One of George Washington's main concerns was to make sure that his soldiers had adequate supplies of meat A part of the army has been a week without any kind of flesh, and the rest three or four days. Naked and starving as they are, we cannot enough admire the incomparable patience and fidelity of the soldiery, that they have not been ere this excited by their suffering to a general mutiny and dispersion.

    The aggregate happiness of society, which is best promoted by the practice of a virtuous policy, is, or ought to be, the end of all government

    The very idea of the power and right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.

    Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the peoples' liberty's teeth.

    Written about Washington after his death by another of the founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson His mind was great and powerful ... as far as he saw, no judgment was ever sounder. It was slow in operation, being little aided by invention or imagination, but sure in conclusion.... Perhaps the strongest feature in his character was prudence, never acting until every circumstance, every consideration, was maturely weighed refraining if he saw doubt, but, when once decided, going through his purpose, whatever obstacles opposed. His integrity was the most pure, his justice the most inflexible I have ever known.... He was, indeed, in every sense of the words, a wise, a good and a great man ... On the whole, his character was, in its mass, perfect ... it may truly be said, that never did nature and fortune combine more perfectly to make a man great....

    In the appointments to the great offices of the government, my aim has been to combine geographical situation, and sometimes other considerations, with abilities and fitness of known characters


    My observation is that whenever one person is found adequate to the discharge of a duty... it is worse executed by two persons, and scarcely done at all if three or more are employed therein.

    It gave us a chance to reassess what our country stands for, what our freedoms mean and what our responsibility is,


    I attribute my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education which I received from my mother.

    When a man does all he can, though it succeeds not well, blame not him that did it.

    The first cat we auditioned was totally black. It made me a little nervous. I was glad to see that Mr. Ed had a little white spot on his chest.

    Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.

    Do not conceive that fine clothes make fine men, any more than fine feathers make fine birds. A plain, genteel dress is more admired, obtains more credit in the eyes of the judicious and sensible.

    The new constitution established a president with powers unheard of in the republican United States. Some even wanted him to be king, a thought that GW found ludicrous What astonishing changes a few years are capable of producing I am told that even respectable characters speak of a monarchical form of government without horror. From thinking proceeds speaking, thence to acting is often but a single step. But how irrevocable and tremendous What a triumph for the advocates of despotism to find that we are incapable of governing ourselves, and that systems founded on the basis of equal liberty are merely ideal fallacious.

    I conceive that a knowledge of books is the basis on which all other knowledge rests.

    Our own Country's Honor, all call upon us for a vigorous and manly exertion, and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world. Let us therefore rely upon the goodness of the Cause, and the aid of the supreme Being, in whose hands Victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble Actions...

    Not only do I pray for it, on the score of human dignity, but I can clearly foresee that nothing but the rooting out of slavery can perpetuate the existence of our union, by consolidating it in a common bond of principle

    Unless there's a judge somewhere who is just dying for a case like this, I think it will be put to an end on Friday.

    with black feathery trim -- because the founding father was ''so stiff.

    I am once more seated under my own vine and fig tree ... and hope to spend the remainder of my days in peaceful retirement, making political pursuits yield to the more rational amusement of cultivating the earth.

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

    The company in which you will improve most will be least expensive to you

    In the Enlightened Age and in this Land of equal Liberty it is our boast, that a man's religious tenets will not forfeit the protection of the Laws, nor deprive him of the right of attaining and holding the highest Offices that are known in the Unite

    In his address of 19 September 1796, given as he prepared to leave office, President George Washington spoke about the importance of morality to the country's well-being Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports.... And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion.... Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a Nation with its virtue.


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