Top 450 George Washington Quotes (2025 Update)
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301. “I am persuaded, you will permit me to observe, that the path of true piety is so plain as to require but little political direction.”

— George Washington

302. “Democratical States must always feel before they can see: it is this that makes their Governments slow, but the people will be right at last.”

— George Washington

303. “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.”

— George Washington

304. “Can it be, that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a Nation with its virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human Nature. Alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices?”

— George Washington

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

— George Washington

306. “Experience has taught us that men will not adopt and carry into execution measures the best calculated for their own good without the intervention of a coercive power.”

— George Washington

307. “Give not advice without being asked, and when desired, do it briefly.”

— George Washington

308. “The tumultuous populace of large cities are ever to be dreaded.”

— George Washington

309. “Rise early, that by habit it may become familiar, agreeable, healthy, and profitable.”

— George Washington

310. “Laws or ordinances unobserved, or partially attended to, had better never have been made.”

— George Washington

311. “If we cannot learn wisdom from experience, it is hard to say where it is to be found.”

— George Washington

312. “Undertake not to teach your equal in the art himself professes; it savors arrogancy.”

— George Washington

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

— George Washington

314. “So far as I am acquainted with the principles and doctrines of Freemasonry, I conceive it to be founded in benevolence and to be exercised only for the good of mankind.”

— George Washington

315. “Lenience will operate with greater force, in some instances than rigor. It is therefore my first wish to have all of my conduct distinguished by it.”

— George Washington

316. “Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest.”

— George Washington

317. “The reflection upon my situation and that of this army produces many an uneasy hour when all around me are wrapped in sleep. Few people know the predicament we are in.”

— George Washington

318. “Strive not with your superiors in argument, but always submit your judgment to others with modesty.”

— George Washington

319. “It would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being Who rules over the universe, Who presides in the councils of nations, and Whose providential aids can supply every human defect...”

— George Washington

320. “Mankind, when left to themselves, are unfit for their own government.”

— George Washington

321. “Honesty will be found on every experiment, to be the best and only true policy; let us then as a Nation be just.”

— George Washington

322. “I go to the chair of government with feelings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place of his execution.”

— George Washington

323. “Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for, I have grown not only gray, but almost blind in the service of my country. – March 15, 1783.”

— George Washington

324. “The nation which indulges towards another an habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest.”

— George Washington

325. “The investigation of mathematical truths accustoms the mind to method and correctness in reasoning, and is an employment peculiarly worthy of rational beings.”

— George Washington

326. “It is one of the evils of democratical governments, that the people, not always seeing and frequently misled, must often feel before they can act.”

— George Washington

327. “When in company, put not your hands to any part of the body, not usually discovered.”

— George Washington

328. “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.”

— George Washington

329. “When firearms go, all goes – we need them every hour.”

— George Washington

330. “Interwoven is the love of liberty with every ligament of the heart.”

— George Washington

331. “I cannot conceive a rank more honorable, than that which flows from the uncorrupted choice of a brave and free people, the purest source and original fountain of all power.”

— George Washington

332. “Happiness is more effectually dispensed to mankind under a republican form of government than any other.”

— George Washington

333. “While just government protects all in their religious rites, true religion affords government its surest support.”

— George Washington

334. “As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit.”

— George Washington

335. “Where is the man to be found who wishes to remain indebted for the defense of his own person and property to the exertions, the bravery, and the blood of others, without making one generous effort to repay the debt of honor and gratitude?”

— George Washington

336. “Let your conversation be without malice or envy, for it is a sign of a tractable and commendable nature; and in all cases of passion admit reason to govern.”

— George Washington

337. “Unwilling am I, in the evening of a life nearly consumed in public cares, to quit a peaceful abode for an Ocean of difficulties.”

— George Washington

338. “In a free and republican government, you cannot restrain the voice of the multitude. Every man will speak as he thinks, or, more properly, without thinking, and consequently will judge of effects without attending to their causes.”

— George Washington

339. “Nothing is too extravagant to expect from men who conceive they are ungratefully and unjustly dealt by.”

— George Washington

340. “Let us therefore rely on the goodness of the cause, and the aid of the supreme Being, in whose hands victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble actions.”

— George Washington

341. “The great mass of our citizens require only to understand matters rightly, to form right decisions.”

— George Washington

342. “Be not hasty to believe flying reports to the disparagement of any.”

— George Washington

343. “We ought to deprecate the hazard attending ardent and susceptible minds, from being too strongly, and too early prepossessed in favor of other political systems, before they are capable of appreciating their own.”

— George Washington

344. “Speak not evil of the absent for it is unjust.”

— George Washington

345. “An ambassador has no need of spies; his character is always sacred.”

— George Washington

346. “It is incumbent upon every person of every description to contribute to his country’s welfare.”

— George Washington

347. “The pure and benign light of revelation has had a meliorating influence on mankind.”

— George Washington

348. “It is absolutely necessary... for me to have persons that can think for me, as well as execute orders.”

— George Washington

349. “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

350. “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.”

— George Washington