Top 450 George Washington Quotes (2025 Update)
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151. “One thing and only one thing a Masonic Lodge can give its members which they can get nowhere else in the world. That one thing is Masonry.”

— George Washington

152. “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

153. “To stand well in the estimation of one’s country is a happiness that no rational creature can be insensible of.”

— George Washington

154. “The best way to have peace is to always be prepared to fight a way.”

— George Washington

155. “Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die.”

— George Washington

156. “How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these.”

— George Washington

157. “One of his officers, Henry Lee, summed up contemporary public opinion of Washington: First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”

— George Washington

158. “Let experience solve it. To listen to mere speculation in such a case were criminal.”

— George Washington

159. “There was not a member of the Constitutional Convention who had the least objection to what is contended for by the advocates for a Bill of Rights and trial by jury.”

— George Washington

160. “I never mean, unless some particular circumstances should compel it, to possess another slave by purchase, it being among my first wishes to see some plan adopted, by which slavery in this country may be abolished by law.”

— George Washington

161. “The constitution vests the power of declaring war in Congress; therefore no offensive expedition of importance can be undertaken until after they shall have deliberated upon the subject and authorized such a measure.”

— George Washington

162. “Facts may speak for themselves.”

— George Washington

163. “Painful as the task is to describe the dark side of our affairs, it sometimes becomes a matter of indispensable necessity.”

— George Washington

164. “It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious.”

— George Washington

165. “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

166. “I know of no pursuit in which more real and important services can be rendered to any country than by improving its agriculture, its breed of useful animals, and other branches of a husbandman’s cares.”

— George Washington

167. “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

168. “If ever again our nation stumbles upon unfunded paper, it shall surely be like death to our body politic. This country will crash.”

— George Washington

169. “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

170. “While we are contending for our own liberty, we should be very cautious not to violate the conscience of others, ever considering that God alone is the judge of the hearts of men, and to Him only in this case are they answerable.”

— George Washington

171. “Every action in company ought to be with some sign of respect to those present.”

— George Washington

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

— George Washington

173. “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

174. “We should not look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dearly bought experience.”

— George Washington

175. “What a triumph for the advocates of despotism to find that we are incapable of governing ourselves, and that systems founded on the basis of equal liberty are merely ideal and fallacious.”

— George Washington

176. “The Army, as usual, are without pay; and a great part of the soldiery without shirts; and though the patience of them is equally threadbare, the States seem perfectly indifferent to their cries.”

— George Washington

177. “But lest some unlucky event should happen unfavorable to my reputation, I beg it may be remembered by every gentleman in the room that I this day declare with the utmost sincerity, I do not think myself equal to the command I am honored with.”

— George Washington

178. “My manner of living is plain and I do not mean to be put out of it. A glass of wine and a bit of mutton are always ready.”

— George Washington

179. “Offensive operations, often times, is the surest, if not the only means of defence.”

— George Washington

180. “Unhappy it is, though, to reflect that a brother’s sword has been sheathed in a brother’s breast and that the once-happy plains of America are either to be drenched with blood or inhabited by slaves. Sad alternative! But can a virtuous man hesitate in his choice?”

— George Washington

181. “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 slavery.”

— George Washington

182. “Life is always uncertain, and common prudence dictates to every man the necessity of settling his temporal concerns, while it is in his power, and while the mind is calm and undisturbed.”

— George Washington

183. “The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country.”

— George Washington

184. “There is a rank due to the United States among nations which will be withheld, if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of weakness.”

— George Washington

185. “Without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive.”

— George Washington

186. “Every day the increasing weight of years admonishes me more and more, that the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome.”

— George Washington

187. “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.”

— George Washington

188. “Uniformity in the currency, weights, and measures of the United States is an object of great importance, and will, I am persuaded, be duly attended to.”

— George Washington

189. “No taxes can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant.”

— George Washington

190. “I can never think of promoting my convenience at the expense of a friend’s interest and inclination.”

— George Washington

191. “Be not forward, but friendly and courteous; the first to salute, hear and answer; and be not pensive when it is time to converse.”

— George Washington

192. “Speak not injurious words, neither in jest nor earnest. Scoff at none though they give occasion.”

— George Washington

193. “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

194. “Freemasonry is an institution founded on eternal reason and truth; whose deep basis is the civilization of mankind, and whose everlasting glory it is to have the immovable support of those two mighty pillars, science and morality.”

— George Washington

195. “To the distinguished character of patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian.”

— George Washington

196. “Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”

— George Washington

197. “Always speak the truth.”

— George Washington

198. “Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause.”

— George Washington

199. “Let no one go hungry away. If any of the kind of people should be in want of corn, supply their necessities, provided it does not encourage them in idleness.”

— George Washington

200. “The liberality of sentiment toward each other, which marks every political and religious denomination of men in this country, stands unparalleled in the history of nations.”

— George Washington