George Washington Quotes

379 Sourced Quotes

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
Be easy and condescending in your deportment to your officers, but not too familiar, lest you subject yourself to a want of respect, which is necessary to support a proper command.

George Washington
The foundation of our Empire was not laid in the gloomy age of Ignorance and Superstition, but at an Epoch when the rights of mankind were better understood and more clearly defined, than at any former period.

George Washington
Sleep not when others speak, sit not when others stand, speak not when you should hold your peace, walk not when others stop.

George Washington
Undertake not to teach your equal in the art himself professes; it savors arrogancy.

George Washington
Why should I expect to be exempt from censure; the unfailing lot of an elevated station? My Heart tells me it has been my unremitted aim to do the best circumstances would permit; yet, I may have been very often mistaken in my judgment of the means.

George Washington
Thirteen sovereignties pulling against each other and all tugging at the federal head, will soon bring ruin on the whole.

George Washington
Give not advice without being asked, and when desired, do it briefly.

George Washington
Men of real talents in Arms have commonly approved themselves patrons of the liberal arts and friends to the poets, of their own as well as former times. In some instances by acting reciprocally, heroes have made poets, and poets heroes.

George Washington
Without virtue, and without integrity, the finest talents and the most brilliant accomplishments can never gain the respect, and conciliate the esteem, of the truly valuable part of mankind.

George Washington
The most certain way to make a man your enemy is to tell him you esteem him such.

George Washington
Even respectable characters speak of a monarchical form of government without horror.

George Washington
Peace with all the world is my sincere wish. I am sure it is our true policy, and am persuaded it is the ardent desire of the government.

George Washington
Should any American soldier be so base and infamous as to injure any Canadian or Indian in his person or property, I do most earnestly enjoin you to bring him to such severe and exemplary punishment, as the enormity of the crime may require. Should it extend to death itself, it shall not be disproportioned to its guilt, at such a time and in such a cause.

George Washington
From thinking proceeds speaking; thence to acting is often but a single step. But how irrevocable and tremendous!

George Washington
[The spirit of party] opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions.

George Washington
I earnestly pray that the Omnipotent Being who has not deserted the cause of America in the hour of its extremest hazard, will never yield so fair a heritage of freedom a prey to 'Anarchy' or 'Despotism'.

George Washington
A hundred thousand men, coming one after another, cannot move a Ton weight; but the united strength of 50 would transport it with ease.

George Washington
It is an old adage that honesty is the best policy-this applies to public as well as private life-to States as well as individuals.

George Washington
But if the laws are to be so trampled upon with impunity, and a minority is to dictate to the majority, there is an end put at one stroke to republican government, and nothing but anarchy and confusion is to be expected thereafter...

George Washington
The best and only safe road to honor, glory, and true dignity is justice.

George Washington
Nothing is too extravagant to expect from men who conceive they are ungratefully and unjustly dealt by.

George Washington
Though, when a people shall have become incapable of governing themselves and fit for a master, it is of little consequence from what quarter he comes.

George Washington
Men's minds are as variant as their faces. Where the motives of their actions are pure, the operation of the former is no more to be imputed to them as a crime, than the appearance of the latter; for both, being the work of nature, are alike unavoidable.

George Washington
The company in which you will improve most will be least expensive to you.

George Washington
I consider it an indubitable mark of mean-spiritedness and pitiful vanity to court applause from the pen or tongue of man.

George Washington
It is among the evils, and perhaps not the smallest, of democratical governments, that the people must feel before they will see. When this happens they are roused to action. Hence it is that those kinds of government are so slow.

George Washington
The views of men can only be known, or guessed at, by their words or actions.

George Washington
It is not the mere study of the Law, but to become eminent in the profession of it, which is to yield honor and profit.

George Washington
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