|
Read a George Washington Quote
Looking for a George Washington Quote? These quotes will help you get
into the mind of the first American President. Each George Washington Quote
is taken from his letters, speeches, documents and diaries and is listed
in chronological order. Links to more quotes are at the bottom.
|
George Washington
|
|
For a list of interesting George Washington Facts,
click here.
Read a George Washington Quote
"I have the pleasure, however, to inform you, that there is the greatest
prospect of its being adopted by the people. It has its opponents, as any
system formed by the wisdom of man would undoubtedly have; but they bear
but a small proportion to its friends, and differ among themselves in their
objections." - Letter to William Gordon, January 1, 1788
"To know the affinity of tongues seems to be one step towards promoting the
affinity of nations. Would to god, the harmony of nations was an object that
lay nearest to the hearts of Sovereigns; and that the incentives to peace
(of which commerce and facility of understanding each other are not the
most inconsiderable) might be daily encreased! Should the present or any
other efforts of mine to procure information respecting the different
dialects of the Aborigines in America, serve to reflect a ray of light
on the obscure subject of language in general, I shall be highly gratified.
For I love to indulge the contemplation of human nature in a progressive
state of improvement and melioration; and if the idea would not be considered
visionary and chimerical, I could fondly hope, that the present plan of the
great Potentate of the North might, in some measure, lay the foundation for
that assimilation of language, which, producing assimilation of manners and
interests, which, should one day remove many of the causes of hostility from
amongst mankind." - Letter to the Marquis de Lafayette, January 10, 1788
"It appears to me, then, little short of a miracle, that the Delegates from
so many different States... should unite in forming a system of national
Government, so little liable to well founded objections." - Letter to
the Marquis de Lafayette, February 7, 1788
"The government... can never be in danger of degenerating into a monarchy, and
oligarchy, an aristocracy, or any other despotic or oppressive form so long as
there shall remain any virtue in the body of the people." - Letter to the
Marquis de Lafayette, February 7, 1788
"It will at least be a recommendation to the proposed constitution that it is
provided with more checks and barriers against the introduction of tyranny,
and those of a nature less liable to be surmounted, than any government hitherto
instituted among mortals hath possessed." - Letter to the Marquis de Lafayette,
February 7, 1788
"We are not to expect perfection in this world; but mankind, in modern times,
have apparently made some progress in the science of government." - Letter
to the Marquis de Lafayette, February 7, 1788
"I would not be understood my dear Marquis to speak of consequences which may be
produced, in the revolution of ages, by corruption of morals, profligacy of manners,
and listlessness for the preservation of the natural and unalienable rights of
mankind; nor of the successful usurpations that may be established at such an
unpropitious juncture, upon the ruins of liberty, however providently guarded
and secured, as these are contingencies against which no human prudence can
effectually provide. It will at least be a recommendation to the proposed
Constitution that it is provided with more checks and barriers against the
introduction of Tyranny, and those of a nature less liable to be surmounted,
than any Government hitherto instituted among mortals, hath possessed. We are
not to expect perfection in this world; but mankind, in modern times, have
apparently made some progress in the science of government. Should that which
is now offered to the People of America, be found n experiment less perfect
than it can be made, a Constitutional door is left open for its amelioration."
- Letter to the Marquis de Lafayette, February 7, 1788
Looking for another
George Washington Quote?
George
Washington
"The consciousness of having discharged that duty which we owe to our country
is superior to all other considerations." - Letter to James Madison, March
2, 1788
"So far as I am capable of judging, the principles upon which the society is
founded and the rules laid down for its government, appear to be well calculated
to promote so laudable and arduous an undertaking, and you will permit me to add
that if an event so long and so earnestly desired as that of converting the
Indians to Christianity and consequently to civilization, can be effected,
the Society of Bethlehem bids fair to bear a very considerable part in it."
- Letter to Rev. John Ettwein of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel
to the Heathen, May 2, 1788
"I had always hoped that this land might become a safe and agreeable asylum to
the virtuous and persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong."
- Letter to Francis Van der Kamp, May 28, 1788
"Next Monday the Convention in Virginia will assemble; we have still good hopes
of its adoption here: though by no great plurality of votes. South Carolina has
probably decided favourably before this time. The plot thickens fast. A few
short weeks will determine the political fate of America for the present
generation, and probably produce no small influence on the happiness of
society through a long succession of ages to come." - Letter to the
Marquis de Lafayette, May 28, 1788
"Men of real talents in Arms have commonly approved themselves patrons of the
liberal arts and friends to the poets, of their own as well as former times.
In some instances by acting reciprocally, heroes have made poets, and poets
heroes." - Letter to the Marquis de Lafayette, May 28, 1788
"Mr. Barlow is considered by those who are good Judges to be a genius of the
first magnitude; and to be one of those Bards who hold the keys of the gate
by which Patriots, Sages and Heroes are admitted to immortality. Such are
your Antient Bards who are both the priest and door-keepers to the temple
of fame. And these, my dear Marquis, are no vulgar functions. Men of real
talents in Arms have commonly approved themselves patrons of the liberal
arts and friends to the poets of their own as well as former times. In some
instances by acting reciprocally, heroes have made poets, and poets heroes.
Alexander the Great is said to have been enraptured with the Poems of Homer
and to have lamented that he had not a rival muse to celebrate his actions.
Julius Caesar is well known to have been a man of a highly cultivated
understanding and taste. Augustus was the professed and magnificent rewarder
of poetical merit, nor did he lose the return of having his achievements
immortalized in song. The Augustan age is proverbial for intellectual
refinement and elegance in composition; in it the harvest of laurels and
bays was wonderfully mingled together. The age of your Louis the fourteenth,
which produced a multitude of great Poets and great Captains, will never be
forgotten; nor will that of Queen Ann in England, for the same cause, ever
cease to reflect a lustre upon the kingdom. Although we are yet in our cradle,
as a nation, I think the efforts of the human mind with us are sufficient to
refute, by incontestable facts, the doctrines of those who have asserted that
every thing degenerates in America." - Letter to the Marquis de Lafayette,
May 28, 1788
How about another George Washington Quote?
"It is a wonder to me, there should be found a single monarch, who does not
realize that his own glory and felicity must depend on the prosperity and
happiness of his People. How easy is it for a sovereign to do that which
shall not only immortalize his name, but attract the blessings of millions."
- Letter to the Marquis de Lafayette, June 18, 1788
"There seems to be a great deal of bloody work cut out for this summer in the
North of Europe. If war, want and plague are to desolate those huge armies
that are assembled, who that has the feelings of a man can refrain from
shedding a tear over the miserable victims of Regal Ambition? It is really
a strange thing that there should not be room enough in the world for men
to live, without cutting one anothers throats." - Letter to the Marquis
de Lafayette, June 18, 1788
"I hope, some day or another, we
shall become a storehouse and granary for the world." - Letter to the
Marquis de Lafayette, June 19, 1788
"If I was a young man, just
preparing to begin the world, or if advanced in life, and had a family to
make a provision for, I know of no country where I should rather fix my
habitation than in some part of that region (the West)." - Letter to
Richard Henderson, June 19, 1788
"How pitiful, in the eye of reason and religion, is that false ambition
which desolates the world with fire and sword for the purposes of conquest
and fame; when compared to the milder virtues of making our neighbours and
our fellow men as happy as their frail conditions and perishable natures
will permit them to be." - Letter to Rev. John Lathrop, June 22, 1788
"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." - Letter to Benjamin Lincoln, June 29, 1788
"We may, with a kind of grateful and pious exultation, trace the finger of
Providence through those dark and mysterious events, which first induced the
States to appoint a general Convention and then led them one after another
into an adoption of the system recommended by that general Convention; thereby
in all human probability, laying a lasting foundation for tranquility and
happiness." - Letter to Jonathan Trumbull, July 20, 1788
"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." - Letter to Charles Pettit, August 16, 1788
"Every real patriot must have lamented that private feuds and local politics
should have unhappily insinuated themselves into, and in some measure obstructed
the discussion of a great national question. A just opinion, that the People
when rightly informed will decide in a proper manner, ought certainly to have
prevented all intemperate or precipitate proceedings on a subject of so much
magnitude; nor should a regard to common decency have suffered the zealots in
the minority to stigmatize the authors of the Constitution as Conspirators and
Traitors." - Letter to Charles Pettit, August 16, 1788
"For myself, I expected not to be exempted from obloquy any more than others.
It is the lot of humanity. But if the shafts of malice had been aimed at me in
ever so pointed a manner on this occasion, shielded as I was by a consciousness
of having acted in conformity to what I believed my duty, they would have fallen
blunted from their mark." - Letter to Charles Pettit, August 22, 1788
"I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain, what I
consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man."
- Letter to Alexander Hamilton, August 28, 1788
If you're looking for another George Washington Quote
check
out the pages below
If you enjoyed the George Washington Quote page, check out
these inspirational quotes from some other Founding Fathers
|
|
