Quotes About Washington

I served with General Washington in die Legislature of Virginia...and...with Doctor Franklin in Congress. I never heard neither of them speak ten minutes at a time, nor to any but the main point.

I've been a political junkie for a long time. I find the way Washington works is just fascinating to me.

$100,000 donors buy access to Congress and the White House. We believe it's long past time to clean up Washington.

Republicans spent too much money, borrowed too much money, earmarked too much. In this race, I'm the only guy who hasn't spent time in Washington.

Over middle of mantel, engraving—Washington Crossing the Delaware; on the wall by the door, copy of it done in thunder-and-lightning crewels by one of the young ladies—work of art which would have made Washington hesitate about crossing, if he could have foreseen what advantage was going to be taken of it.

He knows that in the whole history of the race of men no single great and high and beneficent thing was ever done for the souls and bodies, the hearts and the brains, of the children of this world, but a Mugwump started it and Mugwumps carried it to victory. And their names are the stateliest in history: Washington, Garrison, Galileo, Luther, Christ. Loyalty to petrified opinions never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul in this world--and never will.

Oh, who shall know the might Of the words he utter'd there? The fate of nations there was turned By the fervor of his prayer. "But wouldst thou know his name Who wandered there alone? Go, read enroll'd in Heaven's archives, The prayer of Washington.

The waitress was white, and the counter was white, and the ice cream I never ate in Washington, D. C. that summer I left childhood was white, and the white heat and the white pavement and the white stone monuments of my first Washington summer made me sick to my stomach for the whole rest of that trip and it wasn't much of a graduation present after all.

In John Adams's worst nightmare, the story of the American Revolution assumed a different formulation: "The essence of the whole will be that Dr. Franklin's electrical rod smote the earth and out sprung General Washington. That Franklin electrified him with his rod—and thence forward these two conducted all the policy, negotiation, legislatures, and war.

Adams left the floor to Virginia, proud men from the most populous colony, one that shared New England's views but not its reputation for fire-breathing fanaticism. (John Adams would later claim that this was the reason Washington commanded the army, Jefferson wrote the Declaration, and Richard Henry Lee proposed it.)

The Natchez Trace seemed much safer to him than risking a sailboat from New Orleans to Washington

the modern American, particularly in Texas and the Southwest, talks progressive, but he votes conservative. He assails Washington and all its works, but demands more than his share of federal money; indeed the Southwest only exists at all thanks to federal spending on water projects, without which it would go back to the desert within a year.

liberty and the homeland of the Jews. Athenian democracy had shifted to Washington, and ancient Judaism had taken a secular form in the state of Israel.

It's a sad indication of where Washington has come, where policy differences almost necessarily become questions of integrity. I came to Washington in the late '70s, and people had the ability in the past to have intense policy differences but didn't feel the need to question the other person's character.

But in this era of concentrated wealth, severe inequality, and rigged rules we have a master narrative that power is inherently evil. That's why the civic myths of this age are dark political melodramas like House of Cards and grim fantasies like Game of Thrones in which nice guys finish headless and the only winners are those who lie, cheat, and kill. We're not in The West Wing anymore, folks. Mr. Smith died in Washington.

ANNA AND I spent the holidays in Washington, taking time off when we could.

I arrived in Washington as a quiet, reserved professor—with a research background that proved to be quite useful in the financial crisis.

These principles should be more broadly applied in Washington.

But it's hard to avoid the conclusion that today we need more cooperation and less confrontation in Washington.

The leak annoyed but didn't surprise me; I had learned that's how Washington works.

In fact, despite my understated style, I was as aggressive on this issue as on any during my time in Washington.

My experiences in Washington turned me off from political parties pretty much completely. I view myself now as a moderate independent, and I think that's where I'll stay.

Health reform is, in some ways, a microcosm to everything that's right about Washington and everything that's wrong about it.

I spent 10 years fighting for reform in Cook County, and I didn't change my DNA when I got to Washington.