Quotes from George Washington

There can be no greater error than to expect, or calculate, upon real favors from nation to nation. It is an illusion which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard.

Let me ask you, sir, when is the time for brave men to exert themselves in the cause of liberty and their country, if this is not?

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.

Providence has at all times been my only dependence, for all other resources seemed to have failed us.

It is at all times more easy to make enemies than friends.

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.

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.

Reason, too late perhaps, may convince you of the folly of misspending time.

I am not only retired from all public employments, but I am retiring within myself, and shall be able to view the solitary walk and tread the paths of private life with heartfelt satisfaction.

I will move gently down the stream of life until I sleep with my fathers.

I commend you, however, for passing the time in as merry a manner as you possibly could; it is assuredly better to go laughing than crying thro' the rough journey of life.

[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.

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.

To encourage literature and the arts is a duty which every good citizen owes to his country.

I conceive a knowledge of books is the basis upon which other knowledge is to be built.

I regret exceedingly that the disputes between the protestants and Roman Catholics should be carried to the serious alarming height mentioned in your letters. 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. [ Letter to Sir Edward Newenham, 22 June 1792 ]

Paper money has had the effect in your state that it will ever have, to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open the door to every species of fraud and injustice.

Where are our Men of abilities? Why do they not come forth to save their Country?

Real men despise battle, but will never run from it.

We must consult our means rather than our wishes.

Be courteous to all, but intimate with few; and let those be well-tried before you give them your confidence.

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.

To persevere in one's duty, and be silent is the best answer to calumny

Let your heart feel for the afflictions and distress of everyone.