Top 450 George Washington Quotes (2024 Update)
Page 4 of 10

151. “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.”

— George Washington

152. “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.”

— George Washington

153. “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

154. “There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet the enemy.”

— George Washington

155. “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

156. “Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!”

— George Washington

157. “Have the strength to be an honest person.”

— George Washington

158. “The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.”

— George Washington

159. “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

160. “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

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

— George Washington

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

— George Washington

163. “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

164. “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

165. “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

166. “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

167. “The internet is full of many false and unverified quotes.”

— George Washington

168. “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

169. “The United States is in no way founded upon the Christian religion.”

— George Washington

170. “Good company will always be found much less expensive than bad.”

— George Washington

171. “The consideration that human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected will always continue to prompt me to promote the former by inculcating the practice of the latter.”

— George Washington

172. “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

173. “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

174. “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

175. “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

176. “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

177. “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

178. “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

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

— George Washington

180. “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

181. “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

182. “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

183. “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

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

— George Washington

185. “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

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

— George Washington

187. “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

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

— George Washington

189. “Always speak the truth.”

— George Washington

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

— George Washington

191. “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

192. “One of the expedients of party to acquire influence, within particular districts, is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts.”

— George Washington

193. “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

194. “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

195. “Influence is not government.”

— George Washington

196. “I can bear to hear of imputed or real errors. The man who wishes to stand well in the opinion of others must do this; because he is thereby enabled to correct his faults, or remove prejudices which are imbibed against him.”

— George Washington

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

— George Washington

198. “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

199. “I have often expressed my sentiments, that every man, conducting himself as a good citizen, and being accountable to God alone for his religious opinions, ought to be protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience.”

— George Washington

200. “It is to be lamented that great characters are seldom without a blot.”

— George Washington