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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?

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
Least
Providence
Impossible
Sentiments
Ennobles
Nations
Experiments
Recommended
Nature
Vices
Felicity
Human
Permanent
Rendered
Humans
Connected
Sentiment
Every
Nation
Alas
Virtue
Experiment

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I am again called upon by the voice of my country to execute the functions of its Chief Magistrate.
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[T]he foundation of a great Empire is laid, and I please myself with a persuasion, that Providence will not leave its work imperfect.
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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.
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Serious misfortunes, originating in misrepresentation, frequently flow and spread before they can be dissipated by truth.
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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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The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositories, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern, some of them in our country and under our own eyes.
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No measure can be more desirable, whether viewed with an eye to its intrinsic importance, or to the general sentiment and wish of the Nation than to establish a systematic and effectual arrangement for the regular redemption and discharge of the public debt.
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I am once more seated under my own vine and fig tree ... and hope to spend the remainder of my days in peaceful retirement, making political pursuits yield to the more rational amusement of cultivating the earth.
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To constitute a dispute there must be two parties. To understand it well, both parties and all the circumstances must be fully heard and to accommodate the differences, temper and mutual forbearance are requisite.
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No taxes can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant.
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To cash paid for saddlery, a letter case, maps, glasses, etc etc etc. for the use of my Command: 29 pounds 13 shillings and sixpence... To Mrs Washington's travelling expenses in coming to and returning from my winter quarters, the money to defray that taken from my private purse: 1064 pounds, one shilling.
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[T]here is no truth more thoroughly established, than that there exists . . . an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness.
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The common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.
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Government is not reason it is not eloquent it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.
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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.
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A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite and their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent of others for essential, particularly military, supplies.
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Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence . . . the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake.
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Thirteen sovereignties pulling against each other and all tugging at the federal head, will soon bring ruin on the whole.
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Have the strength to be an honest person.
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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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