Top 25 Quotes by George Washington of 670 - Page 25

I shall never ask, never refuse, nor ever resign an office.

I shall never ask, never refuse, nor ever resign an office.

Office, Politician, Refuse

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

Country, Rational, Wells

George Washington, Jared Sparks (1834). “Writings: Being His Correspondence, Addresses, Messages, and Other Papers, Official and Private, Selected and Published from the Original Manuscripts”, p.310

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

George Washington

Unions, Politics, Rewards

The crisis is arrived when we must assert our rights, or submit to every imposition, that can be heaped upon us, till custom and use shall make us as tame and abject slaves, as the blacks we rule over with such arbitrary sway.

George Washington

Rights, Arbitrary, Use

George Washington, John Clement Fitzpatrick, David Maydole Matteson, United States George Washington Bicentennial Commission (1944). “The writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources, 1745-1799: prepared under the direction of the United States George Washington bicentennial commission and published by authority of Congress”

The scheme, my dear Marqs. which you propose as a precedent, to encourage the emancipation of the black people of this Country from that state of Bondage in wch. they are held, is a striking evidence of the benevolence of your Heart. I shall be happy to join you in so laudable a work.

George Washington

Country, Heart, People

George Washington, Thomas J. Fleming (1967). “Affectionately Yours, George Washington: A Self-portrait in Letters of Friendship”, New York : Norton

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

George Washington

Company, Expensive

George Washington (1835). “The writings of George Washington: being his correspondence, addresses, messages, and other papers, official and private, selected and published from the original manuscripts; with a life of the author, notes, and illustrations”, p.373

Since the death of my father four years ago, our lives have become difficult, and I must help my family.

George Washington

Father, Years, Four

The advancement of agriculture, commerce and manufactures, by all proper means, will not, I trust, need recommendation. But I cannot forbear intimating to you the expediency of giving effectual encouragement as well to the introduction of new and useful inventions from abroad, as to the exertions of skill and genius in producing them at home.

George Washington

Encouragement, Home, Mean

George Washington, Jared Sparks (1838). “The Writings of George Washington: Being His Correspondence, Addresses, Messages, and Other Papers, Official and Private”, p.9

I commend you, however, for passing the time in as merry a manner as you possibly could; it is assuredly better to go laughing than crying thro' the rough journey of life.

George Washington

Journey, Laughing, Cry

George Washington, David Maydole Matteson, United States George Washington Bicentennial Commission (1931). “The writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources, 1745-1799”

Require nothing unreasonable of your officers and men, but see that whatever is required be punctually complied with. Reward and punish every man according to his merit, without partiality or prejudice; hear his complaints; if well founded, redress them; if otherwise, discourage them, in order to prevent frivolous ones. Discourage vice in every shape, and impress upon the mind of every man, from the first to the lowest, the importance of the cause, and what it is they are contending for.

George Washington

Men, Order, Mind

George Washington (1989). “Maxims of George Washington: Political, Military, Social, Moral, and Religious”, Mount Vernon Ladies Assn of the

My death has not yet quite arrived, but it is near and inevitable as night follows day.

George Washington

Night, Inevitable

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

George Washington

Mean, Men, Vanity

François Jean marquis de Chastellux, George Washington (1828). “Travels in North-America, in the Years 1780-81-82”, p.396

Ours is a kind of struggle designed, I dare say, by Providence to try the patience, fortitude, and virtue of men. None, therefore, who is engaged in it, will suffer himself, I trust, to sink under difficulties, or be discouraged by hardships. If he cannot do as he wishes, he must do what he can.

George Washington

Struggle, Men, Suffering

George Washington, Jared Sparks (1834). “Writings: Being His Correspondence, Addresses, Messages, and Other Papers, Official and Private, Selected and Published from the Original Manuscripts”, p.91

When we assumed the Soldier, we did not lay aside the Citizen; and we shall most sincerely rejoice with you in the happy hour when the establishment of American Liberty, upon the most firm and solid foundations shall enable us to return to our Private Stations in the bosom of a free, peacefully and happy Country.

George Washington

Country, Soldier, Liberty

George Washington, Stephen Lucas (1999). “The Quotable George Washington: The Wisdom of an American Patriot”, p.90, Rowman & Littlefield

Nowhere does one become more convinced of the strong hold which Freemasonry takes upon the minds and lives of those aging workers in the Craft who have attained its highest honors and of their firm belief in the power of its teachings to purify the soul of men and raise them to a new dignity and to greater heights of spirituality and practical morality.

George Washington

Strong, Teaching, Men

I dare say the men would fight very well if properly officered, although they are an exceedingly dirty and nasty people.

George Washington

Dirty, Fighting, Men

George Washington, John Clement Fitzpatrick, David Maydole Matteson, United States George Washington Bicentennial Commission (1944). “The writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources, 1745-1799: prepared under the direction of the United States George Washington bicentennial commission and published by authority of Congress”

The Stamp Act imposed on the colonies by the Parliament of Great Britain is an ill-judged measure. Parliament has no right to put its hands into our pockets without our consent.

George Washington

Hands, Pockets, Revolution

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

People, Brave, Choices

George Washington, Jared Sparks (1837). “The writings of George Washington: being his correspondence, addresses, messages, and other papers, official and private, selected and published from the original manuscripts; with a life of the author, notes, and illustrations”, p.153

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

4th Of July, Patriotic, Government

George Washington (1948). “Basic Writings of George Washington”

Our conflict is not likely to cease so soon as every good man would wish. The measure of iniquity is not yet filled; and unless we can return a little more to first principles, and act a little more upon patriotic ground, I do not know when it will.

George Washington

Patriotic, Men, Good Man

George Washington, John Clement Fitzpatrick, David Maydole Matteson, United States George Washington Bicentennial Commission (1779). “The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799”, p.312

Men are very apt to run into extremes, hatred to England may carry come into an excess of Confidence in France... I am heartily disposed to entertain the most favourable sentiments of our new ally and to cherish them in others to a reasonable degree; but it is a maxim founded on the universal experience of mankind, that no nation is to be trusted farther than it is bound by its interest; and no prudent statesman or politician will venture to depart from it.

George Washington

Running, Men, History

George Washington, David Maydole Matteson (1936). “The Writings of George Washington: From the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799”

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

Government, Opinion, Form

George Washington (1836). “The writings of George Washington: being his correspondence, addresses, messages, and other papers, official and private, selected and published from the original manuscripts; with a life of the author, notes, and illustrations”, p.167

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

Government, Feelings, Execution

George Washington, Dorothy Twohig, William Wright Abbot (1987). “The Papers of George Washington: April-June 1789”

I will move gently down the stream of life until I sleep with my fathers.

George Washington

Death, Father, Moving

George Washington (1839). “Life”, p.407

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

Self, Wish, May

Jay A. Parry, Andrew M. Allison, George Washington (1991). “The real George Washington”, Natl Center for Constitutional

George Washington Quotes - Page 25