George Washington Quotes
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Our Constitution gives to bigotry no sanction.
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The establishment of our new Government seemed to be the last great experiment for promoting human happiness by reasonable compact in civil society. It was to be, in the first instance, in a considerable degree a government of accommodation as well as a government of Laws. Much was to be done by prudence, much by conciliation, much by firmness.
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I am persuaded, you will permit me to observe, that the path of true piety is so plain as to require but little political direction.
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The tumultuous populace of large cities are ever to be dreaded. Their indiscriminate violence prostrates for the time all public authority, and its consequences are sometimes extensive and terrible.
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No pecuniary consideration is more urgent, than the regular redemption and discharge of the public debt: on none can delay be more injurious, or an economy of time more valuable.
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Without virtue, and without integrity, the finest talents and the most brilliant accomplishments can never gain the respect, and conciliate the esteem, of the truly valuable part of mankind.
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Every action in company ought to be with some sign of respect to those present.
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Liberty is indeed little less than a name, where the Government is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of faction, to confine each member of society within the limits prescribed by the law, and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyme
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We beseech God to pardon our national and other transgressions.
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What is most important of this grand experiment, the United States? Not the election of the first president but the election of its second president. The peaceful transition of power is what will separate this country from every other country in the world.
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Rise early, that by habit it may become familiar, agreeable, healthy, and profitable.
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Let vice and immorality of every kind be discouraged as much as possible in your brigade; and, as a chaplain is allowed to each regiment, see that the men regularly attend during worship. Gaming of every kind is expressly forbidden, as being the foundation of evil, and the cause of many a brave and gallant officer's and soldier's ruin.
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No compact among men... can be pronounced everlasting and inviolable, and if I may so express myself, that no Wall of words, that no mound of parchment can be so formed as to stand against the sweeping torrent of boundless ambition on the one side, aided by the sapping current of corrupted morals on the other.
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When one side only of a story is heard and often repeated, the human mind becomes impressed with it insensibly.
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We must take human nature as we find it, perfection falls not to the share of mortals.
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To expect ... the same service from raw and undisciplined recruits, as from veteran soldiers, is to expect what never did and perhaps never will happen. Men, who are familiarized to danger, meet it without shrinking; whereas troops unused to service often apprehend danger where no danger is.
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A slender acquaintance with the world must convince every man that actions, not words, are the true criterion of the attachment of friends.
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I wish to walk in such a line as will give most general satisfaction.
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To acknowledge the receipt of letters is always proper, to remove doubts of their miscarriage.
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I use no Porter ... in my family, but such as is made in America: both these articles may now be purchased of an excellent quality.
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A slender acquaintance with the world must convince every man, that actions, not words, are the true criterion of the attachment of his friends, and that the most liberal professions of good will are very far from being the surest marks of it. I should be happy that my own experience had afforded fewer examples of the little dependence to be placed upon them.
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It is impossible to reason without arriving at a Supreme Being. Religion is as necessary to reason, as reason is to religion.
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Speak not injurious words neither in jest nor earnest; scoff at none, although they give occasion.
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We should on all Occasions avoid a general Action, or put anything to the Risque, unless compelled by a necessity, into which we ought never to be drawn.