George Washington Quotes
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Though, when a people shall have become incapable of governing themselves and fit for a master, it is of little consequence from what quarter he comes.
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At a distance from the theatre of action, truth is not always related without embellishment, and sometimes is entirely perverted, from a misconception of the causes which produce the effects that are the subjects of censure.
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Republicanism is not the phantom of a deluded imagination. On the contrary, laws, under no form of government, are better supported, liberty and property better secured, or happiness more effectually dispensed to mankind.
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Leave nothing to the uncertainty of procuring a warlike apparatus at the moment of public danger.
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The alternate triumphs of different parties ... make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels.
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Democratical States must always feel before they can see: it is this that makes their Governments slow, but the people will be right at last.
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Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.
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Merit rarely goes unrewarded.
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I am now . . . on a subject, which fills me with inexpressible concern . . . . But as it has been a kind of destiny, that has thrown me upon this service, I shall hope that my undertaking it is designed to answer some good purpose.
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The constitution vests the power of declaring war in Congress; therefore no offensive expedition of importance can be undertaken until after they shall have deliberated upon the subject and authorized such a measure.
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When we assumed the Soldier, we did not lay aside the Citizen; and we shall most sincerely rejoice with you in the happy hour when the establishment of American Liberty, upon the most firm and solid foundations shall enable us to return to our Private Stations in the bosom of a free, peacefully and happy Country.
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Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification.
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One of the expedients of party to acquire influence, within particular districts, is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts.
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Let experience solve it. To listen to mere speculation in such a case were criminal.
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Virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.
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The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.
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Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European Ambition, Rivalship, Interest, Humour or Caprice?
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What students would learn in American schools above all is the religion of Jesus Christ.
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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 and falacious! Would to God that wise measures may be taken in time to avert the consequences we have but too much reason to apprehend.
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The tumultuous populace of large cities are ever to be dreaded.
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The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositories, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern, some of them in our country and under our own eyes.
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My ardent desire is, and my aim has been, to comply strictly with all our engagements, foreign and domestic, but to keep the United States free from political connections with every other country; to see that they may be independent of all and under the influence of none.
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There is nothing that gives a man consequence, and renders him fit for command, like a support that renders him independent of everybody but the State he serves.
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Perseverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages.