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It is one of the evils of democratical governments, that the people, not always seeing and frequently misled, must often feel before they can act.

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
Feels
Governments
Always
Democracy
People
Seeing
Evil
Often
Government
Misled
Feel
Evils
Must
Frequently

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Can it be, that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a Nation with its virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human Nature. Alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices?
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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.
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[L]eave nothing to the uncertainty of procuring a warlike apparatus at the moment of public danger.
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I had rather be on my farm than be emperor of the world.
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Every day the increasing weight of years admonishes me more and more, that the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome.
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[It] is the juvenal period of life when friendships are formed, and habits established, that will stick by one.
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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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To rectify past blunders is impossible, but we might profit by the experience of them.
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Paper money has had the effect in your State that it ever will have, to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open a door to every species of fraud and injustice.
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Integrity and firmness is all I can promise these, be the voyage long or short, never shall forsake me though I be deserted by all men. For of the consolations which are to be derived from these (under any circumstances) the world cannot deprive me.
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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.
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My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her.
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Almighty God, we make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another and for their fellow-citizens of the United States at large.
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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.
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Republicanism is not the phantom of a deluded imagination. On the contrary, laws, under no form of government, are better supported, liberty and property better secured, or happiness more effectually dispensed to mankind.
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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.
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Let us with Caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion.
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Experience has taught us that men will not adopt and carry into execution measures the best calculated for their own good without the intervention of a coercive power.
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If you can't sent money, send tobacco.
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America ... has ever had, and I trust she ever will have, my honest exertions to promote her interest. I cannot hope that my services have been the best but my heart tells me they have been the best that I could render.
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