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George Washington Quotations

George Washington The Rules of Civility
Categories: Advice
Date: 1748
Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.

George Washington letter to Benjamin Lincoln
Categories: America
Date: June 29, 1788
No country upon earth ever had it more in its power to attain these blessings than United America. Wondrously strange, then, and much to be regretted indeed would it be, were we to neglect the means and to depart from the road which Providence has pointed us to so plainly; I cannot believe it will ever come to pass.

George Washington letter to James Madison
Categories: America
Date: November 30, 1785
We are either a United people, or we are not. If the former, let us, in all maters of general concern act as a nation, which have national objects to promote, and a national character to support. If we are not, let us no longer act a farce by pretending to it.

George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: Citizenship
Date: September 19, 1796
Citizens by birth or choice of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations.

George Washington Circular to the States
Categories: The American Revolution
Date: June 8, 1783
The foundation of our Empire was not laid in the gloomy age of Ignorance and Superstition, but at an Epocha when the rights of mankind were better understood and more clearly defined, than at any former period, the researches of the human mind, after social happiness, have been carried to a great extent, the Treasures of knowledge, acquired by the labours of Philosophers, Sages and Legislatures, through a long succession of years, are laid open for our use, and their collected wisdom may be happily applied in the Establishment of our forms of Government; the free cultivation of Letters, the unbounded extension of Commerce, the progressive refinement of Manners, the growing liberality of sentiment, and above all, the pure and benign light of Revelation, have had a meliorating influence on mankind and increased the blessings of Society. At this auspicious period, the United States came into existence as a Nation, and if their Citizens should not be completely free and happy, the fault will be entirely their own.

George Washington Address to Congress on Resigning his Commission
Categories: The American Revolution
Date: December 23, 1783
Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of Action; and bidding an Affectionate farewell to this August body under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my commission, and take my leave of all the employments of public life.

George Washington letter to Steptoe Washington
Categories: Character
Date: December 5, 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 letter to the Residents of Boston
Categories: Character
Date: October 27, 1789
Your love of liberty - your respect for the laws - your habits of industry - and your practice of the moral and religious obligations, are the strongest claims to national and individual happiness.

George Washington draft of first Inaugural Address
Categories: Character
Date: April, 1789
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.

George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: Commerce
Date: October 19, 1796
Harmony, liberal intercourse with all Nations, are recommended by policy, humanity and interest. But even our Commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand: neither seeking nor granting exclusive favours or preferences; consulting the natural course of things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of Commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing with Powers so disposed; in order to give trade a stable course.
George Washington letter to Marquis de Lafayette
Categories: Constitution
Date: May 28, 1788
Next Monday the Convention in Virginia will assemble; we have still good hopes of its adoption here: though by no great plurality of votes. South Carolina has probably decided favourably before this time. The plot thickens fast. A few short weeks will determine the political fate of America for the present generation, and probably produce no small influence on the happiness of society through a long succession of ages to come.

George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: Constitution
Date: September 19, 1796
The Constitution which at any time exists, 'till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole People is sacredly obligatory upon all.

George Washington letter to Marquis de Lafayette
Categories: Constitutional Convention
Date: February 7, 1788
It appears to me, then, little short of a miracle, that the Delegates from so many different States ... should unite in forming a system of national Government, so little liable to well founded objections.
George Washington First Annual Message
Categories: Education
Date: January 8, 1790
Knowledge is, in every country, the surest basis of public happiness.

George Washington letter to the Marquis de la Rourie
Categories: Marriage
Date: August 10, 1786
More permanent and genuine happiness is to be found in the sequestered walks of connubial life than in the giddy rounds of promiscuous pleasure.

George Washington letter to Marquis de Lafayette
Categories: The People
Date: July 25, 1785
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.

George Washington letter to James Madison
Categories: Constitutional Convention
Date: November 5, 1786
No morn ever dawned more favorable than ours did; and no day was every more clouded than the present! Wisdom, and good examples are necessary at this time to rescue the political machine from the impending storm.

George Washington letter to James Warren
Categories: Constitutional Convention
Date: October 7, 1785
Jealousy, and local policy mix too much in all our public councils for the good government of the Union. In a words, the confederation appears to me to be little more than a shadow without the substance....

George Washington letter to John Augustine Washington
Categories: Government
Date: May 31, 1776
To form a new Government, requires infinite care, and unbounded attention; for if the foundation is badly laid the superstructure must be bad.

George Washington The Newburgh Address
Categories: Human Nature
Date: January 2, 1783
And 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 letter to John Jay
Categories: Human Nature
Date: August 15, 1786
We must take human nature as we find it, perfection falls not to the share of mortals.

George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: Justice
Date: October 19, 1796
It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great Nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a People always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence.
George Washington .
Categories: Last Words
Date: December 14, 1799
'Tis well.

George Washington First Inaugural Address
Categories: Laws of Nature
Date: April 30, 1789
The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained.

George Washington letter to James Madison
Categories: Liberty
Date: March 2, 1788
Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.

George Washington letter to the Reformed German Congregation of New York City
Categories: Liberty
Date: November 27, 1783
The establishment of Civil and Religious Liberty was the Motive which induced me to the Field -- the object is attained -- and it now remains to be my earnest wish & prayer, that the Citizens of the United States could make a wise and virtuous use of the blessings placed before them.

George Washington letter to the people of South Carolina
Categories: Liberty
Date: 1790
The value of liberty was thus enhanced in our estimation by the difficulty of its attainment, and the worth of characters appreciated by the trial of adversity.

George Washington address to the New York Legislature
Categories: Citizenship
Date: June 26, 1775
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.

George Washington letter to Alexander Hamilton
Categories: National Defense
Date: April 4, 1783
The Army (considering the irritable state it is in, its suffering and composition) is a dangerous instrument to play with.

George Washington letter to Alexander Hamilton
Categories: International Relations
Date: May 8, 1796
But if we are to be told by a foreign Power ... what we shall do, and what we shall not do, we have Independence yet to seek, and have contended hitherto for very little.

George Washington letter to Partick Henry
Categories: International Relations
Date: October 9, 1775
My ardent desire is, and my aim has been...to comply strictly with all our engagements foreign and domestic; but to keep the U States free from political connections with every other Country. To see that they may be independent of all, and under the influence of none. In a word, I want an American character, that the powers of Europe may be convinced we act for ourselves and not for others; this, in my judgment, is the only way to be respected abroad and happy at home.

George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: International Relations
Date: September 19, 1796
There can be no greater error than to expect, or calculate upon real favours from Nation to Nation. 'Tis an illusion which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard.

George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: International Relations
Date: September 19, 1796
Observe good faith and justice towards all Nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all.

George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: International Relations
Date: September 19, 1796
Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence, (I conjure you to believe me fellow citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake; since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of Republican Government.

George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: International Relations
Date: September 19, 1796
'Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent Alliances, with any portion of the foreign world.

George Washington First Annual Message
Categories: National Defense
Date: January 8, 1790
To be prepared for war, is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.

George Washington Fifth Annual Message
Categories: National Defense
Date: December 3, 1793
There is a rank due to the United States, among nations, which will be withheld, if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of weakness. 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 letter to the Legislature of Pennsylvania
Categories: Patriotism
Date: September 5, 1789
It should be the highest ambition of every American to extend his views beyond himself, and to bear in mind that his conduct will not only affect himself, his country, and his immediate posterity; but that its influence may be co-extensive with the world, and stamp political happiness or misery on ages yet unborn.

George Washington upon fumbling for his glasses before delivering the Newburgh Address
Categories: Patriotism
Date: March 15, 1783
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 First Inaugural Address
Categories: Religion and Morality
Date: April 30, 1789
The foundations of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens, and command the respect of the world.

George Washington letter to Thomas Jefferson
Categories: Politics and Parties
Date: July 6, 1796
[N]or did I believe until lately, that it was within the bonds of probability; hardly within those of possibility, that, while I was using my utmost exertions to establish a national character of our own, independent, as far as our obligations, and justice would permit, of every nation of the earth; and wished, by steering a steady course, to preserve this Country from the horrors of a desolating war, that I should be accused of being the enemy of one Nation, and subject to the influence of another; and to prove it, that every act of my administration would be tortured, and the grossest, and most insidious mis-representations of them be made (by giving one side only of a subject, and that too in such exaggerated and indecent terms as could scarcely be applied to a Nero; a notorious defaulter; or even to a common pick-pocket).

George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: Power
Date: September 19, 1796
The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position.

George Washington letter to Edmund Pendleton
Categories: The Presidency
Date: September 23, 1793
I give my signature to many Bills with which my Judgment is at variance.... From the Nature of the Constitution, I must approve all parts of a Bill, or reject it in total. To do the latter can only be Justified upon the clear and obvious grounds of propriety; and I never had such confidence in my own faculty of judging as to be over tenacious of the opinions I may have imbibed in doubtful cases.

George Washington comment to General Henry Knox
Categories: The Presidency
Date: March, 1789
For myself the delay [in assuming the office of the President] 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 letter to Catherine MacAulay
Categories: The Presidency
Date: January 9, 1790
In our progress toward political happiness my station is new; and if I may use the expression, I walk on untrodden ground. There is scarcely any part of my conduct wch. may not hereafter be drawn into precedent.

George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: Religion and Morality
Date: 1796
[W]here is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation deserts the oaths...?

George Washington letter to Thomas Nelson
Categories: Religion and Morality
Date: August 20, 1778
The Hand of providence has been so conspicuous in all this, that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked, that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations.

George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: Religion and Morality
Date: September 19, 1796
Of all the dispositions and habits which least to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indespensible 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 connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in the Courts of Justice? And let us with caution indulge the opposition, 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 letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island
Categories: Religious Liberty
Date: August 17, 1790
It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.

George Washington First Inaugural Address
Categories: Republican Government
Date: April 30, 1789
The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the republican model of government, are justly considered deeply, perhaps as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.
George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: Virtue
Date: September 19, 1796
`Tis 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 Farewell Address
Categories: Virtue
Date: October 19, 1796
Can it be, that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a Nation with its virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human Nature. Alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices?
George Washington letter to the Officers of the Army
Categories: Poverty
Date: March 12, 1783
Can you then consent to be the only sufferers by this revolution, and retiring from the field, grow old in poverty, wretchedness and contempt? Can you consent to wade through the vile mire of dependency, and owe the miserable remnant of that life to charity, which has hitherto been spent in honor? If you can--GO--and carry with you the jest of tories and scorn of whigs--the ridicule, and what is worse, the pity of the world. Go, starve, and be forgotten!

George Washington letter to John Armstrong
Categories: Character
Date: April 25, 1788
[T]he first transactions of a nation, like those of an individual upon his first entrance into life make the deepest impression, and are to form the leading traits in its character.

George Washington letter to the General Committee of the United Baptist Churches in Virginia
Categories: Religious Liberty
Date: May, 1789
I have often expressed my sentiments, that every man, conducting himself as a good citizen, and being accountable to God alone for his religious opinions, ought to be protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience.

George Washington letter to the Members of the New Church in Baltimore
Categories: Religious Liberty
Date: January 27, 1793
We have abundant reason to rejoice that in this Land the light of truth and reason has triumphed over the power of bigotry and superstition, and that every person may here worship God according to the dictates of his own heart. In this 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 United States.

George Washington General Orders
Categories: The American Revolution
Date: April 18, 1783
Happy, thrice happy shall they be pronounced hereafter, who have contributed any thing, who have performed the meanest office in erecting this stupendous fabrick of Freedom and Empire on the broad basis of Independency; who have assisted in protecting the rights of humane nature and establishing an Asylum for the poor and oppressed of all nations and religions.

George Washington First Inaugural Address
Categories: Virtue
Date: 1789
There exists in the economy and course of nature, an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy, and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained.

George Washington First Inaugural Address
Categories: Virtue
Date: April, 1789
[T]he propitious smiles of Heaven, can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained.

George Washington Circular letter to the States
Categories: International Relations
Date: June 14, 1783
[H]onesty will be found on every experiment, to be the best and only true policy; let us then as a Nation be just.

George Washington letter to the Commissioners of the District of Columbia
Categories: Education
Date: January 28, 1795
[W]e ought to deprecate the hazard attending ardent and susceptible minds, from being too strongly, and too early prepossessed in favor of other political systems, before they are capable of appreciating their own.

George Washington First Annual Message
Categories: Education
Date: January 8, 1790
There is nothing which can better deserve your patronage, than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is, in every country, the surest basis of public happiness. In one in which the measures of government receive their impression so immediately from the sense of the community as in ours it is proportionably essential. To the security of a free constitution it contributes in various ways: By convincing those who are intrusted with the public administration, that every valuable end of Government is best answered by the enlightened confidence of the people: and by teaching the people themselves to know, and to value their own rights; to discern and provide against invasions of them; to distinguish between oppression and the necessary exercise of lawful authority; between burthens proceeding from a disregard to their convenience and those resulting from the inevitable exigencies of Society; to discriminate the spirit of liberty from that of licentiousness, cherishing the first, avoiding the last, and uniting a speedy, but temperate vigilance against encroachments, with an inviolable respect to the Laws.
George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: International Relations
Date: October 19, 1796
'Tis folly in one Nation to look for disinterested favors from another; that it must pay with a portion of its Independence for whatever it may accept under that character; that by such acceptance, it may place itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favours and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than to expect, or calculate upon real favours from Nation to Nation. 'Tis an illusion which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard.
George Washington Eighth Annual Message to Congress
Categories: Agriculture
Date: 1796
It will not be doubted, that with reference either to individual, or National Welfare, Agriculture is of primary importance. In proportion as Nations advance in population, and other circumstances of maturity, this truth becomes more apparent; and renders the cultivation of the Soil more and more, an object of public patronage.

George Washington Message to the House of Representatives
Categories: Budget
Date: December 3, 1793
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.

George Washington letter to Marquis de Lafayette
Categories: Agriculture
Date: June 19, 1788
I hope, some day or another, we shall become a storehouse and granary for the world.

George Washington Letter to Lawrence Lewis
Categories: Slavery
Date: August 4, 1797
I wish from my soul that the legislature of this State could see the policy of a gradual Abolition of Slavery.
George Washington letter to Marquis de Lafayette
Categories: Slavery
Date: May 10, 1786
[Y]our late purchase of an estate in the colony of Cayenne, with a view to emancipating the slaves on it, is a generous and noble proof of your humanity. Would to God a like spirit would diffuse itself generally into the minds of the people of this country; but I despair of seeing it.

George Washington letter to Robert Lewis
Categories: Slavery
Date: August 18, 1799
I am principled against this kind of traffic in the human species...and to disperse the families I have an aversion.

George Washington letter to Marquis de Lafayette
Categories: Slavery
Date: April 5, 1785
The scheme, my dear Marqs. which you propose as a precedent, to encourage the emancipation of the black people of this Country from that state of Bondage in wch. they are held, is a striking evidence of the benevolence of your Heart. I shall be happy to join you in so laudable a work.

George Washington letter to Robert Morris
Categories: Slavery
Date: April 12, 1786
[T]here is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it.

George Washington letter to Charles Pettit
Categories: Advice
Date: August 16, 1788
[T]he great Searcher of human hearts is my witness, that I have no wish, which aspires beyond the humble and happy lot of living and dying a private citizen on my own farm.

George Washington letter to David Stuart
Categories: Power
Date: June 15, 1790
I can truly say I had rather be at Mount Vernon with a friend or two about me, than to be attended at the Seat of Government by the Officers of State and the Representatives of every Power in Europe.

George Washington letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island
Categories: Citizenship
Date: September 9, 1790
The citizens of the United States of America have the right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.
George Washington letter to Vice-President John Adams
Categories: Immigration
Date: November 15, 1794
The policy or advantage of [immigration] taking place in a body (I mean the settling of them in a body) may be much questioned; for, by so doing, they retain the language, habits, and principles (good or bad) which they bring with them. Whereas by an intermixture with our people, they, or their descendants, get assimilated to our customs, measures, and laws: in a word, soon become one people.
George Washington Address to the Members of the Volunteer Association of Ireland
Categories: Immigration
Date: December 2, 1783
The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations and Religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges, if by decency and propriety of conduct they appear to merit the enjoyment.

George Washington Circular to the States
Categories: The American Revolution
Date: 1783
It is yet to be decided whether the Revolution must ultimately be considered as a blessing or a curse: a blessing or a curse, not to the present age alone, for with our fate will the destiny of unborn millions be involved.

George Washington General Orders
Categories: The American Revolution
Date: August 23, 1776
[T]he hour is fast approaching, on which the Honor and Success of this army, and the safety of our bleeding Country depend. Remember officers and Soldiers, that you are Freemen, fighting for the blessings of Liberty - that slavery will be your portion, and that of your posterity, if you do not acquit yourselves like men.

George Washington letter to Chevalier de LaLuzerne
Categories: Constitution
Date: August 1, 1786
[T]he foundation of a great Empire is laid, and I please myself with a persuasion, that Providence will not leave its work imperfect.

George Washington letter to Philip Schuyler
Categories: Advice
Date: July 15, 1777
We should never despair, our Situation before has been unpromising and has changed for the better, so I trust, it will again. If new difficulties arise, we must only put forth new Exertions and proportion our Efforts to the exigency of the times.

George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: Patriotism
Date: 1796
The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations.

George Washington General Orders
Categories: Patriotism
Date: July 2, 1776
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 - The Eyes of all our Countrymen are now upon us, and we shall have their blessings, and praises, if happily we are the instruments of saving them from the Tyranny mediated against them. Let us therefore animate and encourage each other, and shew the whole world, that a Freeman contending for Liberty on his own ground is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth.

George Washington letter to Gouverneur Morris
Categories: International Relations
Date: December 22, 1795
My policy has been, and will continue to be, while I have the honor to remain in the administration of the government, to be upon friendly terms with, but independent of, all the nations of the earth. To share in the broils of none. To fulfil our own engagements. To supply the wants, and be carriers for them all: Being thoroughly convinced that it is our policy and interest to do so.

George Washington as quoted by Gouverneur Morris in Farrand's Records of the Federal Convention of 1787
Categories: Constitutional Convention
Date: March 25, 1787
It is too probable that no plan we propose will be adopted. Perhaps another dreadful conflict is to be sustained. If, to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disprove, how can we afterwards defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair. The event is in the hand of God.
George Washington General Orders
Categories: Courage
Date: July 2, 1776
We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die: Our won Country's Honor, all call upon us for 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.

George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: Education
Date: October 19, 1796
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 circular letter of farewell to the Army
Categories: God
Date: June 8, 1783
I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection, that he would 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, for their fellow Citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served in the Field, and finally, that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all, to do Justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that Charity, humility and pacific temper of mind, which were the Characteristicks of the Divine Author of our blessed Religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy Nation.

George Washington to the Annual meeting of Quakers
Categories: Religious Liberty
Date: 1789
The liberty enjoyed by the people of these states of worshiping Almighty God agreebly to their conscience, is not only among the choicest of their blessings, but also of their rights.

George Washington Thanksgiving Proclamation
Categories: God
Date: October 3, 1789
It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor.
George Washington letter to Catherine MacAuly Graham
Categories: Political Leaders
Date: January 9, 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 letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport
Categories: God
Date: 1790
May the father of all mercies scatter light, and not darkness, upon our paths, and make us in all our several vocations useful here, and in His own due time and way everlastingly happy.

George Washington draft of First Inaugural Address
Categories: Equality
Date: 1789
I rejoice in a belief that intellectual light will spring up in the dark corners of the earth; that freedom of enquiry will produce liberality of conduct; that mankind will reverse the absurd position that the many were, made for the few; and that they will not continue slaves in one part of the globe, when they can become freemen in another.

George Washington letter to Burwell Bassett
Categories: Marriage
Date: May 23, 1785
I have always considered marriage as the most interesting event of one's life, the foundation of happiness or misery.

George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: Patriotism
Date: September 19, 1796
Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.

George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: Politics and Parties
Date: September 19, 1796
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. . . . A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume.

George Washington letter to David Humphreys
Categories: Immigration
Date: July 25, 1785
[L]et the poor the needy and oppressed of the Earth, and those who want Land, resort to the fertile plains of our western country, the second land of Promise, and there dwell in peace, fulfilling the first and great commandment.

George Washington General Orders
Categories: Patriotism
Date: August 23, 1776
The hour is fast approaching, on which the Honor and Success of this army, and the safety of our bleeding Country depend. Remember officers and Soldiers, that you are Freemen, fighting for the blessings of Liberty - that slavery will be your portion, and that of your posterity, if you do not acquit yourselves like men.

George Washington fifth annual address to Congress
Categories: National Defense
Date: December 13, 1793
If we desire to 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 First Inaugural Address
Categories: The People
Date: April 30, 1789
No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand, which conducts the Affairs of men more than the People of the United States. Every step, by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency.

George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: Liberty
Date: September 19, 1796
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.

George Washington letter to Edward Carrington
Categories: Opinion
Date: May 1, 1796
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.
George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: Opinion
Date: September 19, 1796
In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.
George Washington Circular to the States
Categories: America
Date: June 14, 1783
The Citizens of America, placed in the most enviable condition, as the sole Lords and Proprietors of a vast Tract of Continent, comprehending all the various soils and climates of the World, and abounding with all the necessaries and conveniencies of life, are now by the late satisfactory pacification, acknowledged to be possessed of absolute freedom and Independency; They are, from this period, to be considered as the Actors on a most conspicuous Theatre, which seems to be peculiarly designated by Providence for the display of human greatness and felicity; Here, they are not only surrounded with every thing which can contribute to the completion of private and domestic enjoyment, but Heaven was crowned all its other blessings, by giving a fairer opportunity for political happiness, than any other Nation has ever been favored with. Nothing can illustrate these observations more forcibly, than a recollection of the happy conjuncture of times and circumstances, under which our Republic assumed its rank among the Nations
George Washington letter to James Warren
Categories: The American Revolution
Date: March 31, 1779
Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!
George Washington letter to Benjamin Harrison
Categories: Commerce
Date: October 10, 1784
A people... who are possessed of the spirit of commerce, who see and who will pursue their advantages may achieve almost anything.
George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: Constitution
Date: September 19, 1796
The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their Constitutions of Government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, 'till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole People is sacredly obligatory upon all.
George Washington fragments of the Draft First Inaugural Address
Categories: Constitution
Date: April, 1789
The blessed Religion revealed in the word of God will remain an eternal and awful monument to prove that the best Institution may be abused by human depravity; and that they may even, in some instances be made subservient to the vilest purposes. Should, hereafter, those incited by the lust of power and prompted by the Supineness or venality of their Constituents, overleap the known barriers of this Constitution and violate the unalienable rights of humanity: it will only serve to shew, that no compact among men (however provident in its construction and sacred in its ratification) can be pronounced everlasting an inviolable, and if I may so express myself, that no Wall of words, that no mound of parchm[en]t 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.
George Washington letter to George Chapman
Categories: Education
Date: December 15, 1784
The best means of forming a manly, virtuous, and happy people will be found in the right education of youth. Without this foundation, every other means, in my opinion, must fail.
George Washington letter to Francis Van der Kamp
Categories: Immigration
Date: May 28, 1788
I had always hoped that this land might become a safe and agreeable asylum to the virtuous and persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong.
George Washington letter to Pierre Auguste Adet
Categories: International Relations
Date: January 1, 1796
My anxious recollections, my sympathetic feeling, and my best wishes are irresistibly excited whensoever, in any country, I see an oppressed nation unfurl the banners of freedom.
George Washington letter to Alexander Hamilton
Categories: International Relations
Date: May 8, 1796
The nation which indulges towards another an habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest.
George Washington letter to Marquis de Lafayette
Categories: Justice
Date: September 30, 1779
The best and only safe road to honor, glory, and true dignity is justice.
George Washington Circular to the States
Categories: Power
Date: May 9, 1753
Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.
George Washington letter to Gouverneur Morris
Categories: The Presidency
Date: December 22, 1795
The executive branch of this government never has, nor will suffer, while I preside, any improper conduct of its officers to escape with impunity.
George Washington letter to Catherine Macaulay Graham
Categories: The Presidency
Date: January 9, 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 letter to Benedict Arnold
Categories: Public Service
Date: September 14, 1775
Every post is honorable in which a man can serve his country.
George Washington First Inaugural Address
Categories: Public Service
Date: April 30, 1789
I was summoned by my country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love.
George Washington letter to James Madison
Categories: Public Service
Date: March 2, 1788
The consciousness of having discharged that duty which we owe to our country is superior to all other considerations.
George Washington Public Speaking
Categories: Public Speaking
Date: November 10, 1787
Speak seldom, but to important subjects, except such as particularly relate to your constituents, and, in the former case, make yourself perfectly master of the subject.
George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: Taxation
Date: September 19, 1796
No taxes can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant.
George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph
Categories: Truth
Date: July 31, 1795
There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily.
George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: Human Nature
Date: 1796
In the discharge of this trust I will only say that I have, with good intentions, contributed toward the organization and administration of the Government the best exertions of which a very fallible judgment was capable.
George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: Republican Government
Date: 1796
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 tranquility at home, your peace abroad, of your safety, of your prosperity, of that very liberty which you so highly prize.
George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: Republican Government
Date: 1796
…it is of definite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned, and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.
George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: Government
Date: 1796
This Government, the offspring of your own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of its powers, uniting security with energy, and containing within itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and your support.
George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: Government
Date: 1796
The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.
George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: Separation of Powers
Date: 1796
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.
George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: Constitution
Date: 1796
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. The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit which the use can at any time yield.
George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: International Relations
Date: 1796
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.
George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: International Relations
Date: 1796
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 connection as possible.
George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: National Defense
Date: October 19, 1796
If we remain one people, under an efficient government, the period is not far off when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel.
George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: Government Spending, Public Debt, War
Date: Unknown
As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible: avoiding occasions of expence by cultivating peace, but remembering also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it; avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expence, but by vigorous exertions in time of Peace to discharge the Debts which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burthen which we ourselves ought to bear.
George Washington Letter to Bushrod Washington
Categories: Advice, Character, Virtue
Date: January 15, 1783
Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence; true friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks and adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.
George Washington
Categories: Government, Republican Government
Date: May, 1794
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
George Washington Letter to Martha Washington
Categories: American Revolution, History
Date: Unknown
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.
George Washington George Washington letter to Bryan Fairfax
Categories: Rights, Slavery
Date: August 24, 1774
[T]he crisis is arrived when we must assert our rights, or submit to every imposition, that can be heaped upon us, till custom and use shall make us as tame and abject slaves, as the blacks we rule over with such arbitrary sway.
George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: International Relations
Date: October 19, 1796
The duty of holding a Neutral conduct may be inferred, without any thing more, from the obligation which justice and humanity impose on every nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to maintain inviolate the relations of Peace and amity toward other Nations. The inducements of interest for observing that conduct will best be referred to your own reflections and experience. With me, a predominant motive has been to endeavour to gain time to our country to settle and mature its recent institutions, and to progress, without interruption, to that degree of strength and consistency, which is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, command of it own fortunes
George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: International Relations
Date: October 19, 1796
Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence…the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake
George Washington Fifth Annual Message to Congress
Categories: War
Date: December 3, 1793
[L]eave nothing to the uncertainty of procuring a warlike apparatus at the moment of public danger
George Washington Letter to Henry Laurens, On the Dangers of a French Occupation of Canada
Categories: Constitutionalism, Political Leaders
Date: November 14, 1778
[I]t is a maxim, founded upon 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
George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: International Relations, Religion and Morality
Date: October 19, 1796
Observe good faith and justice towards all Nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it?
George Washington Letter to Henry Laurens, On the Dangers of a French Occupation of Canada
Categories: International Relations
Date: November 14, 1778
[I]t 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
George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: International Relations
Date: October 19, 1796
The duty of holding a Neutral conduct may be inferred, without any thing more, from the obligation which justice and humanity impose on every nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to maintain inviolate the relations of Peace and amity toward other Nations.
George Washington Address to the Minister Plenipotentiary of the French Republic
Categories: International Relations, Liberty
Date: January 1, 1796
I rejoice that liberty…now finds an asylum in the bosom of a regularly organized government; a government, which, being formed to secure happiness of the French people, corresponds with the ardent wishes of my heart, while it gratifies the pride of every citizen of the United States, by its resemblance to their own
George Washington To the General Committee, Representing the United Baptist Church in Virginia; Reply to the Senate
Categories: God, Religion and Morality
Date: May, 1789
[E]stablish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution. For you, doubtless, remember that I have often expressed my sentiment, that every man, conducting himself as a good citizen, and being accountable to God alone for his religious opinions, ought to be protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience.
George Washington Address to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport, Rhode, Island
Categories: God, Religion and Morality
Date: August 17, 1790
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 fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the father of all mercies scatter light, and not darkness, upon our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in His own due time and way everlastingly happy
George Washington First Inaugural Address
Categories: Economy, God, Laws of Nature, Natural Law, Religion and Morality, Virtue
Date: April 30, 1789
There exists in the economy and course of nature an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness…we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained
George Washington Proclamation for a National Thanksgiving
Categories: God, Religion and Morality
Date: October 3, 1789
Houses of Congress have …requested me to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the many signal favors of Almighty God
George Washington First Inaugural Address
Categories: God, Religion and Morality
Date: April 30, 1789
[M]y fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe; who presides in the councils of nations; and whose providential aid can supply every human defect; that his benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the People of the United States, a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good
George Washington Letter to the Governors
Categories: Citizenship
Date: June 18, 1783
At this auspicious period, the United States came into existence as a Nation; and if their Citizens should not be completely free and happy, the fault will be entirely their own
George Washington Letter to the Governors
Categories: Citizenship, The People, Virtue
Date: June 18, 1783
It is … [the citizens] choice, and depends upon their conduct, whether they will be respectable and prosperous, or contemptable and miserable as a Nation. This is the time of their political probation; this is the moment when the eyes of the World are turned upon them
George Washington
Categories: Constitutional Convention
Date: Unknown
[M]y wish is, that the Convention may adopt no temporizing expedient, but probe the defects of the Constitution [i.e., the Articles of Confederation] to the bottom, and provide radical cures
George Washington Letter to John Armstrong
Categories: Constitution, Constitutional Convention
Date: April 25, 1788
Upon the whole I doubt whether the Benefits of opposition to the Constitution opposition to the Constitution will not ultimately be productive of more good than evil; it has called forth, in its defence, abilities which would not perhaps have been otherwise exerted that have thrown a new light upon the science of government, It has given the rights of man a full and fair discussion, and explained them in so clear and forcible a manner, as cannot fail to make a lasting impression
George Washington
Categories: Constitutional Convention
Date: September 17, 1787
The business being thus closed…dined together and took a cordial leave of each other After which I returned to my lodgings, did some business with and received the papers from the secretary of the Convention, and retired to meditate on the momentous work which had been executed
George Washington letter to James Warren
Categories: Patriotism, Virtue, War
Date: March 31, 1779
Our conflict is not likely to cease so soon as every good man would wish. The measure of iniquity is not yet filled; and unless we can return a little more to first principles, and act a little more upon patriotic ground, I do not know when it will—or—what may be the issue of the contest. Speculation—peculation—engrossing—forestalling—with all their concomitants, afford too many melancholy proofs of the decay of public virtue; and too glaring instances of its being the interest and desire of too many, who would wish to be thought friends, to continue the war.
George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: Education, Religion and Morality, Virtue
Date: October 19, 1796
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 Farewell Address
Categories: Commerce
Date: October 19, 1796
The inducements of interest for observing [neutral] conduct… has been to endeavour to gain time to our country to settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress without interruption, to that degree of strength and consistency, which is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command of its own fortunes.
George Washington Oath of the President of the United States
Categories: God
Date: April 30, 1789
So help me God
George Washington First Inaugural Address
Categories: Morality and Civil Society, Politics and Parties
Date: April 30, 1789
[A] tribute…is due to the talents, the rectitude, and the patriotism, which adorn the characters selected to devise and adopt [the Constitution]. In these honorable qualifications I behold the surest pledges that as on one side no local prejudices or attachments no separate views, nor party animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over this great assemblage of communities and interests; so, on another, that the foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality
George Washington Farewell Address
Categories: Patriotism, Religion and Morality
Date: October 19, 1796
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