George Washington

I can not tell a lie. I did cut down the cherry tree.

I am embarked on a wide ocean, boundless in its prospect, and in which, perhaps, no safe harbor is to be found.

It is better to be alone than in bad company.

Speak not evil of the absent, for it is a sure way to lose the confidence of all present.

I had rather be at Mount Vernon with a friend or two about me, than to be attended at the Seat of Government by the Officers of State and the Representatives of every Nation.

No punishment, in my opinion, is too great for the man who can build his greatness upon his country's ruin.

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.

There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet the enemy.

To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace.

Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.

It is to be lamented, that great characters are seldom without a blot.

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.

My movements to the chair of Government will be accompanied by feelings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place of his execution.

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.

Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.

I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy.

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.

It is impossible to govern the world without God and the Bible.

My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth.

I hope, some day, we shall become a storehouse and granary for the world.