George Washington Quotes
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I consider it an indispensible duty to close this last solemn act of my official life by commending the interests of our dearest country to the protection of Almighty God and those who have the superintendence of them into his Holy keeping.
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To encourage literature and the arts is a duty which every good citizen owes to his country.
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When in company, put not your hands to any part of the body, not usually discovered.
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The art of war is at once comprehensive and complicated; ... it demands much previous study; and ... the possession of it, in its most improved and perfect state, is always a great moment to the security of a nation. This, therefore, ought to be a serious care of every government; and for this purpose, an academy, where a regular course of instruction is given, is an obvious expedient, which different nations have successfully employed.
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No taxes can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant.
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Military arrangement, and movements in consequence, like the mechanism of a clock, will be imperfectand disordered by the want of a part.
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Worry is the interest paid by those who borrow trouble.
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It is on great occasions only, and after time has been given for cool and deliberate reflection, that the real voice of the people can be known.
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The General most earnestly requires, and expects, a due observance of those articles of war, established for the government of the army which forbid profane cursing, swearing and drunkenness; and in like manner requires and expects, of all officers, and soldiers, not engaged on actual duty, a punctual attendance on divine service, to implore the blessings of heaven upon the means used for our safety and defence.
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Men's minds are as variant as their faces. Where the motives of their actions are pure, the operation of the former is no more to be imputed to them as a crime, than the appearance of the latter; for both, being the work of nature, are alike unavoidable.
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The situation of the general government, if it can be called a government, is shaken to its foundation, and liable to be overturned by every blast.
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We are not to expect perfection in this world; but mankind, in modern times, have apparently made some progress in the science of government.
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I go to the chair of government with feelings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place of his execution.
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Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can exist apart from religious principle.
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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.
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... in the present State of America, our welfare and prosperity depend upon the cultivation of our lands and turning the produce of them to the best advantage.
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The time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves.
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I was no party man myself, and the first wish of my heart was, if parties did exist, to reconcile them.
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Men of real talents in Arms have commonly approved themselves patrons of the liberal arts and friends to the poets, of their own as well as former times. In some instances by acting reciprocally, heroes have made poets, and poets heroes.
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The finite mind of man can never grasp the mysteries of the infinite. It is the highest wisdom, as it is our great happiness, to accept our limitations, to use what we have, and leave the rest to God.
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However political parties may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.
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If I could have entertained the slightest apprehension that the Constitution framed in the Convention where I had the honor to preside might possibly endanger the religious rights of any ecclesiastical society, certainly I would never have placed my signature to it.
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May the same wonderworking Deity, who long since delivered the Hebrews from their Egyptian oppressors and planted them in the promised land, whose Providential agency has lately been conspicuous in establishing these United States as an independent nation, still continue to water them with the dews of Heaven and to make the inhabitants of every denomination participate in the temporal and spiritual blessings of that people whose God is Jehovah.
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It is a maxim, founded on the universal experience of mankind, that no nation is to be trusted farther than it is bound by its interest; and no prudent statesman or politician will venture to depart from it.