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I am led to reflect how much more delightful to an undebauched mind is the task of making improvements on the earth, than all the vain glory which can be acquired from ravaging it by the most uninterrupted career of conquests.

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
Careers
Reflect
Making
Improvement
Ravaging
Earth
Task
Conquests
Much
Vain
Uninterrupted
Mind
Tasks
Improvements
Garden
Acquired
Glory
Conquest
Career
Delightful

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It rarely happens otherwise than that a thorough-faced coquette dies in celibacy, as a punishment for her attempts to mislead others, by encouraging looks, words, or actions, given for no other purpose than to draw men on to make overtures that they may be rejected.
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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.
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One of the expedients of party to acquire influence, within particular districts, is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts.
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It is easy to make acquaintances, but very difficult to shake them off, however irksome and unprofitable they are found, after we have once committed ourselves to them.
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What a triumph for the advocates of despotism to find that we are incapable of governing ourselves, and that systems founded on the basis of equal liberty are merely ideal and fallacious.
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Rise early, that by habit it may become familiar, agreeable, healthy, and profitable.
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Play not the Peacock, looking everywhere about you, to see if you be well deck't.
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I anticipate with pleasing expectations that retreat in which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow citizens, the benign influence of good laws under a free government, the ever favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers.
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Father I cannot tell a lie. I did it with my little hatchet.
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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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The thinking part of mankind do not form their judgment from events and their equity will ever attach equal glory to those actions which deserve success, and those which have been crowned with it.
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Great people are not affected by each puff of wind that blows ill. Like great ships, they sail serenely on, in a calm sea or a great tempest.
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At this auspicious period, the United States came into existence as a Nation and if their Citizens should not be completely free and happy, the fault will be entirely their own.
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I never mean, unless some particular circumstances should compel it, to possess another slave by purchase, it being among my first wishes to see some plan adopted, by which slavery in this country may be abolished by law.
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Religion is as necessary to reason as reason is to religion. The one cannot exist without the other. A reasoning being would lose his reason, in attempting to account for the great phenomena of nature, had he not a Supreme Being to refer to and well has it been said, that if there had been no God, mankind would have been obliged to imagine one.
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While I reiterate the professions of my dependence upon Heaven... I will observe that... no man who is profligate in his morals... can possibly be a true Christian.
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It's only natural for unbridled partisanship, unrestrained by allegiance to a greater cause, to lead to chaos.
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I walk on untrodden ground. There is scarcely any part of my conduct which may not hereafter be drawn into precedent.
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I have often expressed my sentiments, that every man, conducting himself as a good citizen, and being accountable to God alone for his religious opinions, ought to be protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience.
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Human rights can only be assured among a virtuous people. The general government . . . can never be in danger of degenerating into a monarchy, an oligarchy, an aristocracy, or any despotic or oppresive form so long as there is any virtue in the body of the people.
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