Top 450 George Washington Quotes (2025 Update)
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351. “The basis of our political system is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government.”

— George Washington

352. “The great Searcher of human hearts is my witness, that I have no wish, which aspires beyond the humble and happy lot of living and dying a private citizen on my own farm.”

— George Washington

353. “In the composition of the human frame there is a good deal of inflammable matter, however dormant it may lie for a time.”

— George Washington

354. “The most dangerous of all false doctrines is the one seasoned with a little truth. It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.”

— George Washington

355. “If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for War.”

— George Washington

356. “It is on great occasions only, and after time has been given for cool and deliberate reflection, that the real voice of the people can be known.”

— George Washington

357. “Our country’s honor calls upon us for a vigorous and manly exertion; and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world.”

— George Washington

358. “The friendship I have conceived will not be impaired by absence; but it may be no unpleasing circumstance to brighten the chain by a renewal of the covenant.”

— George Washington

359. “We are not to expect perfection in this world; but mankind, in modern times, have apparently made some progress in the science of government.”

— George Washington

360. “Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself.”

— George Washington

361. “In the discharge of this trust I will only say that I have, with good intentions, contributed toward the organization and administration of the Government the best exertions of which a very fallible judgment was capable.”

— George Washington

362. “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

363. “May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.”

— George Washington

364. “The consciousness of having discharged that duty which we owe to our country is superior to all other considerations.”

— George Washington

365. “My anxious recollections, my sympathetic feeling, and my best wishes are irresistibly excited whensoever, in any country, I see an oppressed nation unfurl the banners of freedom.”

— George Washington

366. “The common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.”

— George Washington

367. “Nothing is more essential, than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular Nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated.”

— George Washington

368. “There is no restraining men’s tongues or pens when charged with a little vanity.”

— George Washington

369. “For it is fixed principle with me, that whatever is done should be done well.”

— George Washington

370. “To please everybody is impossible; were I to undertake it, I should probably please nobody.”

— George Washington

371. “In a free and republican government, you cannot restrain the voice of the multitude.”

— George Washington

372. “Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue?”

— George Washington

373. “An army formed of good officers moves like clockwork; but there is no situation upon earth less enviable, nor more distressing, than that person’s who is at the head of troops which are regardless of order and discipline.”

— George Washington

374. “In executing the duties of my present important station, I can promise nothing but purity of intentions, and, in carrying these into effect, fidelity and diligence.”

— George Washington

375. “Submit your sentiments with diffidence. A dictatorial style, though it may carry conviction, is always accompanied with disgust.”

— George Washington

376. “There is an indissoluble union between a magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity.”

— George Washington

377. “A special act of Congress enabled King to take his oath of office in Cuba – the only President or Vice President to be sworn in outside the United States – later in March. King returned home to Alabama in early April and died two days later, the only Vice President to never make it to the national capital during his term of office.”

— George Washington

378. “We should on all Occasions avoid a general Action, or put anything to the Risque, unless compelled by a necessity, into which we ought never to be drawn.”

— George Washington

379. “Liberty is indeed little less than a name, where the Government is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of faction, to confine each member of society within the limits prescribed by the law, and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyme.”

— George Washington

380. “Saya harap, saya selalu memiliki cukup keteguhan dan cukup kebajikan untuk memelihara gelar yang saya anggap paling mengagumkan, yaitu watak sebagai orang jujur.”

— George Washington

381. “In the appointments to the great offices of the government, my aim has been to combine geographical situation, and sometimes other considerations, with abilities and fitness of known characters.”

— George Washington

382. “In a word, if this country can steer clear of European politics, stand firm on its bottom, and be wise and temperate in its government, it bids fair to be one of the greatest and happiest nations in the world.”

— George Washington

383. “A person who is anxious to be a leader of the fashion, or one of the first to follow it, will certainly appear in the eyes of judicious men to have nothing better than a frequent change of dress to recommend him to notice.”

— George Washington

384. “To secure respect to a neutral flag requires a naval force organized and ready to vindicate it from insult or aggression.”

— George Washington

385. “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

386. “I have always given it as my decided opinion that no nation had a right to intermeddle in the internal concerns of another; that every one had a right to form and adopt whatever government they liked best to live under themselves;.”

— George Washington

387. “It is not the lowest priced goods that are always the cheapest – the quality is, or ought to be as much an object with the purchaser, as the price.”

— George Washington

388. “Wherein you reprove another be unblameable yourself, for example is more prevalent than precepts.”

— George Washington

389. “Letters of friendship require no study.”

— George Washington

390. “The most certain way to make a man your enemy is to tell him you esteem him such.”

— George Washington

391. “It is in vain, I perceive, to look for ease and happiness in a world of troubles.”

— George Washington

392. “I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberty.”

— George Washington

393. “Pierce was the first President to “affirm” rather than “swear” his oath. He was also the first to have memorized his inaugural speech.”

— George Washington

394. “Hence, likewise, they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments, which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to Republican Liberty. In this sense it is, that your Union ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other.”

— George Washington

395. “A slender acquaintance with the world must convince every man that actions, not words, are the true criterion of the attachment of friends.”

— George Washington

396. “The independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint efforts and common dangers, sufferings, and successes.”

— George Washington

397. “90. Being Set at meat Scratch not, neither Spit, Cough, or blow your Nose except there’s a Necessity for it.”

— George Washington

398. “Being a politician makes your hair turn white.”

— George Washington

399. “Reason, too late perhaps, may convince you of the folly of misspending time.”

— George Washington

400. “It may be laid down as a primary position, and the basis of our system, that every Citizen who enjoys the protection of a Free Government, owes not only a proportion of his property, but even of his personal services to the defense of it.”

— George Washington