“No pecuniary consideration is more urgent, than the regular redemption and discharge of the public debt: on none can delay be more injurious, or an economy of time more valuable.”
Source: Maxims of Washington: Political, Social, Moral, and Religious
“Harmony, liberal intercourse with all Nations, are recommended by policy, humanity and interest. But even our Commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand: neither seeking nor granting exclusive favours or preferences; consulting the natural course of things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of Commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing with Powers so disposed; in order to give trade a stable course.”
Source: Monuments of Washington's patriotism: containing a fac simile of his publick accounts kept during the revolutionary war; and some of the documents connected with his military command and civil administration; together with an eulogium on the character of Washington, by W. Jackson
“The inducements of interest for observing [neutral] conduct . . . has been to endeavour to gain time to our country to settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress without interruption, to that degree of strength and consistency, which is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command of its own fortunes.”
Source: The Complete Works of George Washington: Military Journals, Rules of Civility, Writings on French and Indian War, Presidential Work, Inaugural Addresses, Messages to Congress, Letters & Biography
“`Tis substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule indeed extends with more or less force to every species of free Government.”
Source: The Political Economy of the American Revolution
“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?”
Source: Washington's Farewell Address: The Proclamation of Jackson Against Nullification, and the Declaration of Independence
“There exists in the economy and course of nature, an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy, and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained.”
“It is . . . [the citizens] choice, and depends upon their conduct, whether they will be respectable and prosperous, or contemptable and miserable as a Nation. This is the time of their political probation; this is the moment when the eyes of the World are turned upon them.”
Source: Writings: Being His Correspondence, Addresses, Messages, and Other Papers, Official and Private, Selected and Published from the Original Manuscripts
“Our conflict is not likely to cease so soon as every good man would wish. The measure of iniquity is not yet filled; and unless we can return a little more to first principles, and act a little more upon patriotic ground, I do not know when it will-or-what may be the issue of the contest. Speculation-peculation-engrossing-forestalling-with all their concomitants, afford too many melancholy proofs of the decay of public virtue; and too glaring instances of its being the interest and desire of too many, who would wish to be thought friends, to continue the war.”
Source: The writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources, 1745-1799
“To form a new Government, requires infinite care, and unbounded attention; for if the foundation is badly laid the superstructure must be bad.”
Source: The writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources, 1745-1799
“This Government, the offspring of your own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of its powers, uniting security with energy, and containing within itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and your support.”
Source: The Patriot's Monitor: Or, Speeches and Addresses of the Late George Washington
“The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.”
Source: Washington's Farewell Address to the People of the United States
“The establishment of our new Government seemed to be the last great experiment for promoting human happiness by reasonable compact in civil society. It was to be, in the first instance, in a considerable degree a government of accommodation as well as a government of Laws. Much was to be done by prudence, much by conciliation, much by firmness.”
Source: The Life of General Washington: First President of the United States
“No taxes can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant.”
Source: Washington's Farewell Address to the People of the United States of America: Published in September, 1796
“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.”
Source: The writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources, 1745-1799
“My ardent desire is, and my aim has been, to comply strictly with all our engagements, foreign and domestic, but to keep the United States free from political connections with every other country; to see that they may be independent of all and under the influence of none.”
“Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence, (I conjure you to believe me fellow citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake; since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of Republican Government.”
Source: Washington's Farewell Address: The Proclamation of Jackson Against Nullification, and the Declaration of Independence
“Honesty will be found on every experiment, to be the best and only true policy; let us then as a Nation be just.”
Source: Washington's political legacies: To which is annexed an appendix, containing an account of his illness, death, and the national tributes of respect paid to his memory, with a biographical outline of his life and character
“'Tis folly in one Nation to look for disinterested favors from another; that it must pay with a portion of its Independence for whatever it may accept under that character; that by such acceptance, it may place itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favours and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than to expect, or calculate upon real favours from Nation to Nation. 'Tis an illusion which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard.”
Source: The Political Economy of the American Revolution
“My policy has been, and will continue to be, while I have the honor to remain in the administration of the government, to be upon friendly terms with, but independent of, all the nations of the earth. To share in the broils of none. To fulfil our own engagements. To supply the wants, and be carriers for them all: Being thoroughly convinced that it is our policy and interest to do so.”
Source: Maxims of George Washington: Political, Military, Social, Moral, and Religious
“My anxious recollections, my sympathetic feeling, and my best wishes are irresistibly excited whensoever, in any country, I see an oppressed nation unfurl the banners of freedom.”
Source: The Quotable George Washington: The Wisdom of an American Patriot
“The nation which indulges towards another an habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest.”
“Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification.”
Source: George Washington's Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior: ...And Other Important Writings
“Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence . . . the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake.”
Source: Washington's Farewell Address: The Proclamation of Jackson Against Nullification, and the Declaration of Independence
“The duty of holding a Neutral conduct may be inferred, without any thing more, from the obligation which justice and humanity impose on every nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to maintain inviolate the relations of Peace and amity toward other Nations.”
Source: Washington's Farewell Address: The Proclamation of Jackson Against Nullification, and the Declaration of Independence
“I rejoice that liberty . . . now finds an asylum in the bosom of a regularly organized government; a government, which, being formed to secure happiness of the French people, corresponds with the ardent wishes of my heart, while it gratifies the pride of every citizen of the United States, by its resemblance to their own.”
“The establishment of Civil and Religious Liberty was the Motive which induced me to the Field - the object is attained - and it now remains to be my earnest wish & prayer, that the Citizens of the United States could make a wise and virtuous use of the blessings placed before them.”
Source: The writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources, 1745-1799
“Democratical States must always feel before they can see: it is this that makes their Governments slow, but the people will be right at last.”
Source: The Quotable George Washington: The Wisdom of an American Patriot
“The Army (considering the irritable state it is in, its suffering and composition) is a dangerous instrument to play with.”
“If we remain one people, under an efficient government, the period is not far off when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel.”
Source: Washington's Farewell Address to the People of the United States of America: Published in September, 1796
“There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet the enemy.”
Source: Maxims of Washington: Political, Social, Moral, and Religious
“Nothing short of self-respect and that justice which is essential to a national character ought to involve us in war.”
Source: The Life of General Washington: First President of the United States
“Military arrangement, and movements in consequence, like the mechanism of a clock, will be imperfectand disordered by the want of a part.”
Source: The Writings of George Washington: pt. II. Correspondence and miscellaneous papers relating to the American revolution: (v. 3) June, 1775-July, 1776. (v. 4) July, 1776-July] 1777. (v. 5) July, 1777-July, 1778. (v. 6) July, 1778-March, 1780. (v. 7) March, 1780-April, 1781. (v. 8) April, 1781-December, 1783
“I was summoned by my Country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love.”
Source: Maxims of Washington: Political, Social, Moral, and Religious
“No compact among men... can be pronounced everlasting and inviolable, and if I may so express myself, that no Wall of words, that no mound of parchment can be so formed as to stand against the sweeping torrent of boundless ambition on the one side, aided by the sapping current of corrupted morals on the other.”
“[T]he first transactions of a nation, like those of an individual upon his first entrance into life make the deepest impression, and are to form the leading traits in its character.”
“Do not conceive that fine Clothes make fine Men, any more than fine feathers make fine Birds. A plain genteel dress is more admired and obtains more credit than lace and embroidery in the Eyes of the judicious and sensible.”
Source: The Life of General Washington: First President of the United States
“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.”
Source: The Writings of George Washington: pt.III. Private letters from the time Washington resigned his commission as commander-in-chief of the army to that of his inauguration as president of the United States: December, 1783-April, 1789. 1835
“No morn ever dawned more favorable than ours did; and no day was every more clouded than the present! Wisdom, and good examples are necessary at this time to rescue the political machine from the impending storm.”
Source: The Writings of George Washington: Being His Correspondence, Addresses, Messages, and Other Papers, Official and Private, Selected and Published from the Original Manuscripts; with a Life of the Author, Notes, and Illustrations
“Jealousy, and local policy mix too much in all our public councils for the good government of the Union. In a words, the confederation appears to me to be little more than a shadow without the substance . . . .”
Source: The writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources, 1745-1799
“It is too probable that no plan we propose will be adopted. Perhaps another dreadful conflict is to be sustained. If, to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disprove, how can we afterwards defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair. The event is in the hand of God.”
“[M]y wish is, that the Convention may adopt no temporizing expedient, but probe the defects of the Constitution [i.e., the Articles of Confederation] to the bottom, and provide radical cures.”
“The business being thus closed . . . dined together and took a cordial leave of each other After which I returned to my lodgings, did some business with and received the papers from the secretary of the Convention, and retired to meditate on the momentous work which had been executed.”
Source: The Writings of George Washington: Being His Correspondence, Addresses, Messages, and Other Papers, Official and Private, Selected and Published from the Original Manuscripts; with a Life of the Author, Notes, and Illustrations
“[L]eave nothing to the uncertainty of procuring a warlike apparatus at the moment of public danger.”
Source: The Writings of George Washington: Being His Correspondence, Addresses, Messages, and Other Papers, Official and Private, Selected and Published from the Original Manuscripts; with a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations
“It is on great occasions only, and after time has been given for cool and deliberate reflection, that the real voice of the people can be known.”
Source: The writings of George Washington
“The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad, of your safety, of your prosperity, of that very liberty which you so highly prize.”
Source: Washington's Farewell Address to the People of the United States
“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.”
Source: The Writings of George Washington: Being His Correspondence, Addresses, Messages, and Other Papers, Official and Private
“Should the States reject this excellent Constitution, the probability is, an opportunity will never again offer to cancel another in peacethe next will be drawn in blood.”
“This tribe of black gentry work more effectually against us, than the enemy's arms. They are a hundred times more dangerous to our liberties, and the great cause we are engaged in. It is much to be lamented that each State, long ere this, has not hunted them down as pests to society, and the greatest enemies we have to the happiness of America.”
“But lest some unlucky event should happen unfavorable to my reputation, I beg it may be remembered by every gentleman in the room that I this day declare with the utmost sincerity, I do not think myself equal to the command I am honored with.”
Source: The Life of General Washington: First President of the United States
“Let us therefore animate and encourage each other, and show the whole world that a Freeman, contending for liberty on his own ground, is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth.”
Source: The writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources, 1745-1799
