George Washington Quotes to Celebrate the Presidency
– George Washington Quotes –
To prepare for the President’s celebration day, we bring to you George Washington quotes. One of the best presidents of the United States of America. Get inspired from these quotes as we celebrate the best of leaders.
Who is George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799), an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father, served as the country’s first president from 1789 until 1797.
The Continental Congress appointed Washington as commander of the Continental Army, and he led the Patriot forces to victory in the American Revolutionary War.
He also served as president of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, which drafted the United States Constitution and established the federal government of the United States. For his varied leadership during the country’s formative years, they have dubbed Washington the “Father of the Nation.”
Between 1749 and 1750, Washington held the position of official surveyor of Culpeper County, Virginia. During the French and Indian War, he got his basic military training (as well as a command with the Virginia Regiment).
He eventually became a delegate to the Continental Congress and won election to the Virginia House of Burgesses. He named the Continental Army’s Commanding General here. Friendship plant.
During the American Revolutionary War, he commanded American forces (aligned with France) in the defeat and surrender of the British at the Siege of Yorktown. After the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783, he resigned his commission.
When Was George Washington President?
George Washington’s presidency started on April 30, 1789, when he was sworn in as the first President of the United States, and concluded on March 4, 1797.
They elected Washington president after winning the first quadrennial presidential election in 1788–89, in which he was overwhelmingly chosen.
In the 1792 presidential election, Washington was unanimously re-elected, but he stepped down after two terms. His vice president, the Federalist Party’s John Adams, succeeded him. True friendship.
Washington served as president of the 1787 constitutional convention, and was widely expected to become the first President of the United States under the new Constitution, despite his desire to retire from public life.
Washington had established his preeminence among the new nation’s Founding Fathers through his service as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.
Washington showed both his reluctance to accept the presidency and his lack of expertise in civil administration tasks in his first inaugural address, yet he proved to be a capable leader.
American Revolution Quotes
The quotes below are George Washington quotes on the American revolution:
1. The time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves.
2. 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.
3. Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.
4. Perseverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages.
5. The hour is fast approaching, on which the Honor and Success of this army, and the safety of our bleeding Country depend. Remember officers and Soldiers, that you are Freemen, fighting for the blessings of Liberty – that slavery will be your portion, and that of your posterity, if you do not acquit yourselves like men.
6. Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!
7. Our country’s honor calls upon us for a vigorous and manly exertion; and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world.
8. The States separately have very inadequate ideas of the present danger. Party disputes and personal quarrels are the great business of the day, whilst the concerns of the nation are secondary.
9. 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.
10. Remember, officers and soldiers, that you are fighting for the blessings of liberty.
11. The Army, as usual, are without pay; and a great part of the soldiery without shirts; and though the patience of them is equally threadbare, the States seem perfectly indifferent to their cries.
12. Happy, thrice happy shall they be pronounced hereafter, who have contributed any thing, who have performed the meanest office in erecting this stupendous fabrick of Freedom and Empire on the broad basis of Independency; who have assisted in protecting the rights of humane nature and establishing an Asylum for the poor and oppressed of all nations and religions.
13. The eyes of all our countrymen are now upon us, and we shall have their blessings and praises, if happily we are the instruments of saving them from the tyranny meditated against them.
14. Even respectable characters speak of a monarchical form of government without horror.
15. I dare say the men would fight very well if properly officered, although they are an exceedingly dirty and nasty people.
15. A half-starved limping government, always moving upon crutches and tottering at every step.
16. 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.
17. No Man has a more perfect reliance on the all-wise and powerful dispensations of the Supreme Being than I have, nor thinks his aid more necessary…The man must be bad indeed who can look upon the events of the American Revolution without feeling the warmest gratitude towards the great Author of the Universe whose divine interposition was so frequently manifested in our behalf….In war He directed the sword, and in peace, He has ruled in our councils.
18. Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of Action; and bidding an Affectionate farewell to this August body under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my commission, and take my leave of all the employments of public life.
19. Let us therefore rely on the goodness of the cause, and the aid of the supreme Being, in whose hands victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble actions.
20. We began a contest for liberty ill provided with the means for the war, relying on our patriotism to supply the deficiency. We expected to encounter many wants and distressed we must bear the present evils and fortitude
21. It is yet to be decided whether the Revolution must ultimately be considered as a blessing or a curse: a blessing or a curse, not to the present age alone, for with our fate will the destiny of unborn millions be involved.
22. I am now on a subject, which fills me with inexpressible concern . . . . But as it has been a kind of destiny, that has thrown me upon this service, I shall hope that my undertaking it is designed to answer some good purpose.
READ ALSO!!!
Veteran Quotes
George Washington quotes on celebrating veterans:
23. The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the Veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation.
24. To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace.
25. To expect … the same service from raw and undisciplined recruits, as from veteran soldiers, is to expect what never did and perhaps never will happen. Men, who are familiarized to danger, meet it without shrinking; whereas troops unused to service often apprehend danger where no danger is.
These are George Washington quotes concerning the veterans, in honour of their services to the nation.
Fighting Quotes
George Washington quotes on fightings and strife:
26. The hour is fast approaching, on which the Honor and Success of this army, and the safety of our bleeding Country depend. Remember officers and Soldiers, that you are Freemen, fighting for the blessings of Liberty – that slavery will be your portion, and that of your posterity, if you do not acquit yourselves like men.
27. Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause: And I was not without hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy of ⟨the present⟩ age would have put an effectual stop to contentions of this Kind.
28. Remember, officers and soldiers that you are fighting for the blessings of liberty.
29. If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.
30. I dare say the men would fight very well if properly officered, although they are an exceedingly dirty and nasty people.
31. The best way to have peace is to always be prepared to fight a way.
32. It is with pleasure I receive reproof, when reproof is due, because no person can be readier to accuse me, than I am to acknowledge an error, when I am guilty of one; nor more desirous of atoning for a crime, when I am sensible of having committed it.
33. Men’s minds are as variant as their faces. Where the motives of their actions are pure, the operation of the former is no more to be imputed to them as a crime, than the appearance of the latter; for both, being the work of nature, are alike unavoidable.
34. Let experience solve it. To listen to mere speculation in such a case were criminal.
35. Should any American soldier be so base and infamous as to injure any Canadian or Indian in his person or property, I do most earnestly enjoin you to bring him to such severe and exemplary punishment, as the enormity of the crime may require. Should it extend to death itself, it shall not be disproportioned to its guilt, at such a time and in such a cause.
36. Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. Experience has taught us that it is much easier to prevent an enemy from posting themselves than it is to dislodge them after they have got possession, and when the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.
37. There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet the enemy.
38. Experience teaches us that it is much easier to prevent an enemy from posting themselves than it is to dislodge them after they have got possession.
39. The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves; whether they are to have any property, they can call their own; whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed, and themselves consigned to a state of wretchedness from which no human efforts will deliver them. The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die.
40. 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 public happiness of America.
41. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die.
42. It is at all times more easy to make enemies than friends.
43. War – An act of violence whose object is to constrain the enemy, to accomplish our will.
44. Be not glad at the misfortune of another, though he may be your enemy.
45. The most certain way to make a man your enemy is to tell him you esteem him such.
46. My brave fellows, let no sensation of satisfaction for the triumphs you have gained induce you to insult your fallen enemy. Let no shouting, no clamorous huzzaing increase their mortification. It is sufficient for us we witness their humiliation. Posterity will huzza for us.
47. This spirit [of Party], unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human Mind. It exists under different shapes in all Governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form it is seen in its greatest rankness and is truly their worst enemy.
War Quotes
These are George Washington quotes about war:
48. The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the Veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation.
49. Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.
50. Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all.
51. The constitution vests the power of declaring war in Congress; therefore no offensive expedition of importance can be undertaken until after they shall have deliberated upon the subject and authorized such a measure.
52. 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.
53. Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.
54. If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for War.
55. 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.
56. Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all.
57. My first wish is, to see this plague of mankind banished from the earth, and the sons and daughters of this world employed in more pleasing and innocent amusements, than in preparing implements, and exercising them, for the destruction of mankind.
58. To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace.
59. There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet the enemy.
60. Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.
61. Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.
62. Among the many interesting objects which will engage your attention that of providing for the common defense will merit particular regard. To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.
63. Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force…Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.
64. For the sake of humanity it is devoutly to be wished that the manly employment of agriculture and the humanizing benefits of commerce would supersede the waste of war and the rage of conquest; and the swords might be turned into ploughshares, the spears into pruning-hooks, and as the Scripture expresses it, “the nations learn war no more.
READ ALSO!!!
65. Avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts, which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burthen, which we ourselves ought to bear.
66. I do not mean to exclude altogether the idea of patriotism. I know it exists, and I know it has done much in the present contest. But I will venture to assert, that a great and lasting war can never be supported on this principle alone. It must be aided by a prospect of interest, or some reward.
67. Nothing short of self-respect and that justice which is essential to a national character ought to involve us in war.
These are George Washington quotes on war. Some more are waiting for you. Keep reading.
Military Quotes
Here are some of George Washington quotes on the military and armed forces:
68. Military arrangement and movements in consequence, like the mechanism of a clock, will be imperfect and disordered by the want of a part.
69. To place any dependence upon militia, is, assuredly, resting upon a broken staff.
70. Like as a wise man in time of peace prepares for war.
71. One of his officers, Henry Lee, summed up contemporary public opinion of Washington: First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.
72. Every post is honorable in which a man can serve his country.
73. 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.
74. In politics as in religion, my tenets are few and simple. The leading one of which, and indeed that which embraces most others, is to be honest and just ourselves and to exact it from others, meddling as little as possible in their affairs where our own are not involved. If this maxim was generally adopted, wars would cease and our swords would soon be converted into reap hooks and our harvests be more peaceful, abundant, and happy.
75. To each of my Nephews, William Augustine Washington, George Lewis, George Steptoe Washington, Bushrod Washington, and Samuel Washington, I give one of my swords or Cutteaux of which I may be Possessed; and they are to chuse in the order they are named. These Swords are accompanied with an injunction not to unsheathe them for the purpose of shedding blood, except it be for self-defense, or in the defense of their Country and its rights; and in the latter case, to keep them unsheathed, and prefer falling with them in their hands, to the relenquishment thereof.
76. No Man has a more perfect reliance on the all-wise and powerful dispensations of the Supreme Being than I have, nor thinks his aid more necessary…The man must be bad indeed who can look upon the events of the American Revolution without feeling the warmest gratitude towards the great Author of the Universe whose divine interposition was so frequently manifested in our behalf….In war He directed the sword, and in peace, He has ruled in our councils.
77. War – An act of violence whose object is to constrain the enemy, to accomplish our will.
78. A bad war is fought with a good mind.
79. Leave nothing to the uncertainty of procuring a warlike apparatus at the moment of public danger.
80. The art of war is at once comprehensive and complicated; … it demands much previous study; and … the possession of it, in its most improved and perfect state, is always a great moment to the security of a nation. This, therefore, ought to be a serious care of every government; and for this purpose, an academy, where a regular course of instruction is given, is an obvious expedient, which different nations have successfully employed.
81. We began a contest for liberty ill provided with the means for the war, relying on our patriotism to supply the deficiency. We expected to encounter many wants and distressed we must bear the present evils and fortitude
82. I rejoice in a belief that intellectual light will spring up in the dark corners of the earth; that freedom of enquiry will produce liberality of conduct; that mankind will reverse the absurd position that the many were, made for the few; and that they will not continue slaves in one part of the globe, when they can become freemen in another.
83. The General most earnestly requires, and expects, a due observance of those articles of war, established for the government of the army which forbid profane cursing, swearing and drunkenness; and in like manner requires and expects, of all officers, and soldiers, not engaged on actual duty, a punctual attendance on divine service, to implore the blessings of heaven upon the means used for our safety and defence.
84. Passionate attachment to another nation produces a variety of evils… the illusion of common interests where no real common interests exist; adopting the enmities of the other; and participation in the quarrels and wars of the other without any justification. Still another evil is that such a passionate attachment gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens the facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country.
Quotes on Peace
George Washington quotes on peace:
85. If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for War.
86. Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all.
87. My first wish is, to see this plague of mankind banished from the earth, and the sons and daughters of this world employed in more pleasing and innocent amusements, than in preparing implements, and exercising them, for the destruction of mankind.
88. There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet the enemy.
89. Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.
90. It is our policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.
91. Peace with all the world is my sincere wish. I am sure it is our true policy, and am persuaded it is the ardent desire of the government.
92. Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force…Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.
93. Should the States reject this excellent Constitution, the probability is, an opportunity will never again offer to cancel another in peace the next will be drawn in blood.
94. 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.
95. One of his officers, Henry Lee, summed up contemporary public opinion of Washington: First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.
READ ALSO!!!
Brave Quotes
These are George Washington quotes on bravery:
96. It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.
97. It is better to be alone than in bad company.
Famous Quotes
These are George Washington quotes. the famous of them all:
98. Human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.
99. I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.
100. Perseverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages.
101. Associate yourself with men of good quality, if you esteem your own reputation; for ‘tis better to be alone than in bad company.
102. Experience teaches us that it is much easier to prevent an enemy from posting themselves than it is to dislodge them after they have got possession.
103. The harder the conflict, the greater the triumph.
104. Paper money has had the effect in your state that it will ever have, to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open the door to every species of fraud and injustice.
105. Real men despise battle, but will never run from it.
106. We should not look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dearly bought experience.
107. Be not glad at the misfortune of another, though he may be your enemy.
108. Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence.
109. I’ll die on my feet before I’ll live on my knees!
110. It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.
111. If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.
112. To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace.
We are sure you have enjoyed your reading and learnt from the life and George Washington quotes. If that is true, do well to share with your friends. It is free.
CSN Team.
