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George Washington

143 quotes

“If they have real grievances redress them, if possible; or acknowledge the justice of them, and your inability to do it at the moment. If they have not, employ the force of government against them at once.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1786 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Henry Lee (31 October 1786)
“Paper money has had the effect in your State that it ever will have, to ruin commerce—oppress the honest, and open a door to every species of fraud and injustice.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1787 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Jabez Bowen (9 January 1787)
“The only stipulations I shall contend for are, that in all things you shall do as you please. I will do the same; and that no ceremony may be used or any restraint be imposed on any one.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1787 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to David Humphreys, inviting him to an indefinite stay at Mt. Vernon (10 October 1787), as published in Life and Times of David Humphreys (1917) by Frank Landon Humphreys, Vol. I, p. 426
“Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1788 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to James Madison (2 March 1788)
“Your young military men, who want to reap the harvest of laurels, don't care (I suppose) how many seeds of war are sown; but for the sake of humanity it is devoutly to be wished, that the manly employment of agriculture and the humanizing benefits of commerce, would supersede the waste of war and the rage of conquest; that the swords might be turned into plough-shares, the spears into pruning hooks, and, as the Scripture expresses it, "the nations learn war no more.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1788 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Marquis de Chastellux (25 April 1788), published in The Writings of George Washington, edited by John C. Fitzpatrick, Vol. 29, p. 485
“I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain (what I consider the most enviable of all titles) the character of an honest man, as well as prove (what I desire to be considered in reality) that I am, with great sincerity & esteem, Dear Sir Your friend and Most obedient Hble Ser⟨vt⟩”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1788 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Alexander Hamilton (28 August 1788)
“The unfortunate condition of the persons, whose labour in part I employed, has been the only unavoidable subject of regret. To make the Adults among them as easy & as comfortable in their circumstances as their actual state of ignorance & improvidence would admit; & to lay a foundation to prepare the rising generation for a destiny different from that in which they were born; afforded some satisfaction to my mind, & could not I hoped be displeasing to the justice of the Creator.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1788 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Comment of late 1788 or early 1789 upon his slaves, as recorded by David Humphreys, in his notebooks on his conversations with Washington, now in the Rosenbach Library in Philadelphia
“For myself the delay may be compared with a reprieve; for in confidence I assure you, with the world it would obtain little credit that my movements to the chair of Government will be accompanied by feelings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place of his execution: so unwilling am I, in the evening of a life nearly consumed in public cares, to quit a peaceful abode for an Ocean of difficulties, without that competency of political skill, abilities and inclination which is necessary to manage the helm.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1789 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Comment to General Henry Knox on the delay in assuming office (March 1789)
“In executing the duties of my present important station, I can promise nothing but purity of intentions, and, in carrying these into effect, fidelity and diligence.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1789 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Message to the U.S. Congress (9 July 1789); The Writings of George Washington: Being His Correspondence, Addresses, Messages, and Other Papers, Official and Private (1837) edited by Jared Sparks, p. 159 (PDF)
“The satisfaction arising from the indulgent opinion entertained by the American People of my conduct, will, I trust, be some security for preventing me from doing any thing, which might justly incur the forfeiture of that opinion. And the consideration that human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected, will always continue to prompt me to promote the progress of the former, by inculcating the practice of the latter.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1789 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to the Protestant Episcopal Church (19 August 1789) Scan at American Memory (Library of Congress).
“Impressed with a conviction that the due administration of justice is the firmest pillar of good Government, I have considered the first arrangement of the Judicial department as essential to the happiness of our Country, and to the stability of its political system; hence the selection of the fittest characters to expound the law, and dispense justice, has been an invariable object of my anxious concern.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1745 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to U.S. Attorney General Edmund Randolph (28 September 1789), as published in The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799 edited by John C. Fitzpatrick
“Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for, I have grown not only gray, but almost blind in the service of my country.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1783 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement as he put on his glasses before delivering his response to the first Newburgh Address (15 March 1783), quoted in a letter from General David Cobb to Colonel Timothy Pickering (25 November 1825)
“You will, by the dignity of your Conduct, afford occasion for Posterity to say, when speaking of the glorious example you have exhibited to Mankind, had this day been wanting, the World had never seen the last stage of perfection to which human nature is capable of attaining.”
George Washington (1732–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1790 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: First Annual Address, to both Houses of Congress (8 January 1790).
“The advancement of agriculture, commerce and manufactures, by all proper means, will not, I trust, need recommendation. But I cannot forbear intimating to you the expediency of giving effectual encouragement as well to the introduction of new and useful inventions from abroad, as to the exertions of skill and genius in producing them at home; and of facilitating the intercourse between the distant parts of our country by a due attention to the Post Office and Post Roads.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1790 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: First Annual Address, to both House of Congress (8 January 1790)
“A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite; and their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent of others for essential, particularly military, supplies.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1790 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: First Annual Address, to both House of Congress (8 January 1790)
“All see, and most admire, the glare which hovers round the external trappings of elevated office. To me there is nothing in it, beyond the lustre which may be reflected from its connection with a power of promoting human felicity.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1790 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Catherine Macaulay Graham (9 January 1790)
“As mankind become more liberal they will be more apt to allow, that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the Community are equally entitled to the protection of civil Government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations in examples of justice and liberality.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1790 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Roman Catholics (15 March 1790)
“[A] good moral character is the first essential in a man, and that the habits contracted at your age are generally indelible, and your conduct here may stamp your character through life. It is therefore highly important that you should endeavor not only to be learned but virtuous.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1790 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Steptoe Washington (5 December 1790)
“It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1791 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to his niece, Harriet Washington (30 October 1791)
“Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause; and I was not without hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy of the present age would have put an effectual stop to contentions of this kind.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1792 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Sir Edward Newenham (22 June 1792) as published in The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources (1939) as edited by John Clement Fitzpatrick
“Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought most to be deprecated. I was in hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy, which has marked the present age, would at least have reconciled Christians of every denomination so far that we should never again see the religious disputes carried to such a pitch as to endanger the peace of society.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1792 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Edward Newenham (20 October 1792), these statements and one from a previous letter to Newenham seem to have become combined and altered into a misquotation of Washington's original statements to read:
“The friends of humanity will deprecate War, wheresoever it may appear; and we have experience enough of its evils, in this country, to know, that it should not be wantonly or unnecessarily entered upon. I trust, that the good citizens of the United States will show to the world, that they have as much wisdom in preserving peace at this critical juncture, as they have hitherto displayed valor in defending their just rights.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1793 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address to the merchants of Philadelphia (16 May 1793), published in The Writings Of George Washington (1835) by Jared Sparks, p. 202
“If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times ready for war”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1793 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Fifth annual Message (3 December 1793)
“I am very glad to hear that the Gardener has saved so much of the St. foin seed, and that of the India Hemp. Make the most you can of both, by sowing them again in drills. . . Let the ground be well prepared, and the Seed (St. foin) be sown in April. The Hemp may be sown any where.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1794 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: George Washington in a letter to William Pearce at Mount Vernon (Philadelphia 24th Feby 1794), The Writings of George Washington, Bicentennial Edition 1939, p.279 books.google, and founders.archives.gov
“When one side only of a story is heard and often repeated, the human mind becomes impressed with it insensibly.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1795 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Edmund Pendleton (22 January 1795)
“Malignity, therefore, may dart its shafts, but no earthly power can deprive me of the consolation of knowing that I have not, in the whole course of my Administration (however numerous they may have been) committed an intentional error.”
George Washington (1732–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Letter to David Humphreys (12 June 1796)”
George Washington (1732–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Rise early, that by habit it may become familiar, agreeable, healthy, and profitable. It may, for a while, be irksome to do this, but that will wear off; and the practice will produce a rich harvest forever thereafter; whether in public or private walks of life.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1798 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to George Washington Parke Custis (7 January 1798)
“It is infinitely better to have a few good men than many indifferent ones.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1798 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to James McHenry (10 August 1798)
“You could as soon as scrub the blackamore white, as to change the principles of a profest Democrat; and that he will leave nothing unattempted to overturn the Government of this Country.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1745 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources 1745-1799, Vol. 36, August 4, 1797-October 28, 1798 (letter written, 30 September 1798, Mount Vernon) p. 474
“So far as I am acquainted with the principles & Doctrines of Free Masonry, I conceive it to be founded in benevolence and to be exercised only for the good of mankind. If it has been a Cloak to promote improper or nefarious objects, it is a melancholly proof that in unworthy hands, the best institutions may be made use of to promote the worst designs.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1798 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Draft of a letter to the Grand Lodge of Free Masons of the State of Maryland (8 November 1798)
“To sell the overplus I cannot, because I am principled against this kind of traffic in the human species. To hire them out, is almost as bad, because they could not be disposed of in families to any advantage, and to disperse the families I have an aversion. What then is to be done? Something must or I shall be ruined; for all the money (in addition to what I raise by Crops, and rents) that have been received for Lands, sold within the last four years, to the amount of Fifty thousand dollars, has scarcely been able to keep me a float.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first seen 1799 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Robert Lewis, 18 August 1799, published in John Clement Fitzpatrick, The writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources, volume 37, pp. 338-9
“I die hard but am not afraid to go. I believed from my first attack that I should not survive it — my breath cannot last long.”
George Washington (1732–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The first sentence here is sometimes presented as being his last statement before dying, but they are reported as part of the fuller statement, and as being said in the afternoon prior to his death in Life of Washington…
“The reflection on the days of difficulty and danger which are past is rendered the more sweet, from a consciousness that they are succeeded by days of uncommon prosperity and security. If we have wisdom to make the best use of the advantages with which we are now favored, we cannot fail, under the just administration of a good Government, to become a great and happy people.”
George Washington (1732–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“May the children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy.”
George Washington (1732–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every day the increasing weight of years admonishes me more and more, that the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome. Satisfied, that, if any circumstances have given peculiar value to my services, they were temporary, I have the consolation to believe, that, while choice and prudence invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism does not forbid it.”
George Washington (1732–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment. The unity of Government, which constitutes you one people, is also now dear to you. It is justly so; for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquillity at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very Liberty, which you so highly prize.”
George Washington (1732–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of the expedients of party to acquire influence, within particular districts, is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heart-burnings, which spring from these misrepresentations; they tend to render alien to each other those, who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection.”
George Washington (1732–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To the efficacy and permanency of your Union, a Government for the whole is indispensable. No alliances, however strict, between the parts can be an adequate substitute; they must inevitably experience the infractions and interruptions, which all alliances in all times have experienced. Sensible of this momentous truth, you have improved upon your first essay, by the adoption of a Constitution of Government better calculated than your former for an intimate Union, and for the efficacious management of your common concerns.”
George Washington (1732–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Towards the preservation of your government, and the permanency of your present happy state, it is requisite, not only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. One method of assault may be to effect, in the forms of the constitution, alterations, which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown.”
George Washington (1732–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the state, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party, generally.”
George Washington (1732–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. It serves always to distract the Public Councils, and enfeeble the Public Administration. It agitates the Community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection.”
George Washington (1732–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If in the opinion of the People, the distribution or modification of the Constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed.”
George Washington (1732–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Of all the dispositions and habits, which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men and Citizens. The mere Politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connexions with private and public felicity.”
George Washington (1732–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”
George Washington (1732–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government.”
George Washington (1732–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.”
George Washington (1732–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Real Patriots, who may resist the intrigues of the favourite, are liable to become suspected and odious; while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests. (Note: spelling/capitalization likely original.).”
George Washington (1732–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connexion as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop.”
George Washington (1732–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source