George Washington Quotes

Bad seed is a robbery of the worst kind: for your pocket

book not only suffers by it,

but your preparations are lost

and a season passes away unimproved.

Friendship is a plant of slow growth

and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity

before it is entitled to the appellation.

War

An act of violence whose object is to constrain the enemy,

to accomplish our will.

I can only say that there is not a man

living who wishes more sincerely than I do,

to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it

but there is only one proper and effectual mode by

which it can be accomplished,

and that is by Legislative authority: and this,

as far as my suffrage will go, shall never be wanting.

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.

Lenience will operate with greater force,

in some instances than rigor.

It is therefore my first wish to have

all of my conduct distinguished by it.

It may be laid down as a primary position,

and the basis of our system,

that every Citizen who enjoys,

the protection of a Free Government,

owes not only a proportion of his property,

but even of his personal services to the defense of it.

A slender acquaintance with the world

must convince every man that actions, not words,

are the true criterion of the attachment of friends.

Being no bigot myself to any mode of worship,

I am disposed to endulge the professors of,

Christianity in the church,

that road to heaven which to them,

shall seem the most direct plainest easiest and least liable to exception.

Let your Discourse with Men of Business

be Short and Comprehensive.

I beg you be persuaded that no one would be more zealous

than myself to establish effectual barriers

against the horrors of spiritual tyranny,

and every species of religious persecution.

I have no other view than to promote the public good,

and am unambitious of honors not founded,

in the approbation of my Country.

Experience teaches us that it is much easier

to prevent an enemy from posting themselves

than it is to dislodge them after they have got possession.

Over grown military establishments are

under any form of government inauspicious to liberty,

and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.

Nothing can be more hurtful to the service,

than the neglect of discipline;

for that discipline,

more than numbers,

gives one army,

the superiority over another.

The time is near at hand which must determine

whether Americans are to be free men or slaves.

I walk on untrodden ground.

There is scarcely any part of my conduct,

which may not hereafter be drawn into precedent.

The basis of our political system is the right of

the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government.

Some day following the example,

of the United States of America,

there will be a United States of Europe.

There can be no greater error than to expector calculate,

upon real favors from nation to nation.

It is an illusion which experience must cure,

which a just pride ought to discard.