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To please everybody is impossible were I to undertake it, I should probably please nobody.

George Washington

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George Washington
Age: 67 †
Born: 1732
Born: February 22
Died: 1799
Died: December 14
1St U.S. President
Cartographer
Engineer
Farmer
Land Surveyor
Military Officer
Politician
Slaveholder
Statesperson
Westmoreland County
Virginia
Washington
President Washington
G. Washington
Father of the United States
The American Fabius
Probably
Impossible
Everybody
Helping
Undertake
Please
Nobody

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I use no Porter ... in my family, but such as is made in America: both these articles may now be purchased of an excellent quality.
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It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favors.
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Among many other weighty objections to the Measure, it has been suggested, that it has a tendency to introduce religious disputes into the Army, which above all things should be avoided, and in many instances would compel men to a mode of Worship which they do not profess.
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There is a Destiny which has the control of our actions, not to be resisted by the strongest efforts of Human Nature.
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We had quitters during the Revolution too...we called them 'Kentuckians.'
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When once the woman has tempted us, and we have tasted the forbidden fruit, there is no such thing as checking our appetites, whatever the consequences may be.
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But if we are to be told by a foreign Power . . . what we shall do, and what we shall not do, we have Independence yet to seek, and have contended hitherto for very little.
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I rejoice in a belief that intellectual light will spring up in the dark corners of the earth that freedom of enquiry will produce liberality of conduct that mankind will reverse the absurd position that the many were, made for the few and that they will not continue slaves in one part of the globe, when they can become freemen in another.
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Three things prompt men to a regular discharge of their duty in time of action: natural bravery, hope of reward, and fear of punishment.
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The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism.
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Being a politician makes your hair turn white.
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Liberty, when it degrades into licentiousness, begets confusion, and frequently ends in tyranny or some woeful confusion.
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We must consult our means rather than our wishes.
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Be not forward, but friendly and courteous the first to salute, hear and answer and be not pensive when it is time to converse.
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Precedents are dangerous things let the reins of government then be braced and held with a steady hand, and every violation of the Constitution be reprehended: If defective let it be amended, but not suffered to be trampled upon whilst it has an existence.
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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.
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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.
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Smaller societies must prepare the way for greater.
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Since the death of my father four years ago, our lives have become difficult, and I must help my family.
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No country upon earth ever had it more in its power to attain these blessings than United America. Wondrously strange, then, and much to be regretted indeed would it be, were we to neglect the means and to depart from the road which Providence has pointed us to so plainly I cannot believe it will ever come to pass.
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