Top 450 George Washington Quotes (2025 Update)
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401. “At a distance from the theater of action, truth is not always related without embellishment.”

— George Washington

402. “I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy.”

— George Washington

403. “A man ought not to value himself of his achievements or rare qualities of wit, much less of his riches, virtue or kindred.”

— George Washington

404. “Merit rarely goes unrewarded.”

— George Washington

405. “Let us impart all the blessings we possess, or ask for ourselves, to the whole family of mankind.”

— George Washington

406. “Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.”

— George Washington

407. “Providence has done, and I am persuaded is disposed to do, a great deal for us; but we are not to forget the fable of Jupiter and the countryman.”

— George Washington

408. “I am principled against selling negroes, as you would do cattle at a market.”

— George Washington

409. “A people contending for life and liberty are seldom disposed to look with a favorable eye upon either men or measures whose passions, interests or consequences will clash with those inestimable objects.”

— George Washington

410. “Should the States reject this excellent Constitution, the probability is, an opportunity will never again offer to cancel another in peacethe next will be drawn in blood.”

— George Washington

411. “If there was the same propensity in mankind for investigating the motives, as there is for censuring the conduct, of public characters, it would be found that the censure so freely bestowed is oftentimes unmerited and uncharitable.”

— George Washington

412. “A man’s intentions should be allowed in some respects to plead for his actions.”

— George Washington

413. “The company in which you will improve most will be least expensive to you.”

— George Washington

414. “The views of men can only be known, or guessed at, by their words or actions.”

— George Washington

415. “System in all things should be aimed at; for in execution it renders every thing more easy.”

— George Washington

416. “The liberty enjoyed by the people of these states of worshiping Almighty God agreebly to their conscience, is not only among the choicest of their blessings, but also of their rights.”

— George Washington

417. “I never say anything of a man that I have the smallest scruple of saying to him.”

— George Washington

418. “Diffidence in an officer is a good mark because he will always endeavor to bring himself up to what he conceives to be the full line of his duty.”

— George Washington

419. “If the cause is advanced, indifferent is it to me where or in what quarter it happens.”

— George Washington

420. “Even respectable characters speak of a monarchical form of government without horror.”

— George Washington

421. “It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights.”

— George Washington

422. “Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”

— George Washington

423. “There is nothing that gives a man consequence, and renders him fit for command, like a support that renders him independent of everybody but the State he serves.”

— George Washington

424. “I am again called upon by the voice of my country to execute the functions of its Chief Magistrate.”

— George Washington

425. “Went to church and fasted all day.”

— George Washington

426. “I wish from my soul that the legislature of this State could see the policy of a gradual Abolition of Slavery.”

— George Washington

427. “A natural parent has only two things principally to consider, the improvement of his son, and the finances to do it with.”

— George Washington

428. “Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by difference of sentiment in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought most to be deprecated.”

— George Washington

429. “May Heaven to this Union continue its beneficence.”

— George Washington

430. “The United States enjoy a scene of prosperity and tranquility under the new government that could hardly have been hoped for.”

— George Washington

431. “Creationists make it sound like a ‘theory’ is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night. Isaac Asimov, Russian-born American author.”

— George Washington

432. “Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally.”

— George Washington

433. “The most enviable praise of all is just to be called an honest man.”

— George Washington

434. “The States separately have very inadequate ideas of the present danger. Party disputes and personal quarrels are the great business of the day, whilst the concerns of the nation are secondary.”

— George Washington

435. “All see, and most admire, the glare which hovers round the external happiness of elevated office.”

— George Washington

436. “An aching head and trembling limbs, which are the inevitable effects of drinking, disincline the hands from work.”

— George Washington

437. “Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principles.”

— George Washington

438. “In disputes, be not so desirous to overcome as to not give liberty to each one to deliver his opinion and submit to the judgment of the major part, especially if they are judges of the dispute.”

— George Washington

439. “Smaller societies must prepare the way for greater.”

— George Washington

440. “I only wish, while I am a servant of the public, to know the will of my masters, that I may govern my self accordingly.”

— George Washington

441. “The foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principle of private morality.”

— George Washington

442. “All see, and most admire, the glare which hovers round the external trappings of elevated office. To me there is nothing in it, beyond the lustre which may be reflected from its connection with a power of promoting human felicity.”

— George Washington

443. “The men who mine coal and fire furnaces and balance ledgers and turn lathes and pick cotton and heal the sick and plant corn – all serve as proudly, and as profitably, for America as the statesmen who draft treaties and the legislators who enact laws.”

— George Washington

444. “In general I esteem it a good maxim, that the best way to preserve the confidence of the people durably is to promote their true interest.”

— George Washington

445. “During this period, so many important events have occurred, and such changes in men and things have taken place, as the compass of a letter would give you but an inadequate idea of. None of which events, however, nor all of them together, have been able to eradicate from my mind, the recollection of those happy moments – the happiest of my life – which I have enjoyed in your company.”

— George Washington

446. “The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for giving to Mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship.”

— George Washington

447. “Things in life will not always run smoothly. Sometimes we will be rising toward the heights – then all will seem to reverse itself and start downward. The great fact to remember is that the trend of civilization itself is forever upward; that a line drawn through the middle of the peaks and the valleys of the centuries always has an upward trend.”

— George Washington

448. “The situation of the general government, if it can be called a government, is shaken to its foundation, and liable to be overturned by every blast.”

— George Washington

449. “A variety in punishment is of utility, as well as a proportion.”

— George Washington

450. “Citizens by birth or choice of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations.”

— George Washington