George Washington Quotes

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?

No polity can be devised which shall perpetuate freedom among a people that are dead to honor and integrity. Liberty and virtue are twin sisters, and the best fabric in the world . . . .

Seek virtue and of that posest, to Providence resign the rest.

We may look up to armies for our defense, but virtue is our best security. It is not possible that any State should long remain free, where virtue is not supremely honored.

A slur upon the moral government of the world

Liberty can no more exist without virtue and independence than the body can live and move without a soul.

The superior man is quiet and calm, waiting for the appointments of heaven, while the mean man walks in dangerous paths, looking for lucky occurrences.

[T]here is no truth more thoroughly established, than that there exists . . . an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness.

The good man, though a slave, is free; the wicked, though he reigns, is a slave.

Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks-no form of government can render us secure. To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea, if there be sufficient virtue and intelligence in the community, it will be exercised in the selection of these men. So that we do not depend on their virtue, or put confidence in our rulers, but in the people who are to choose them.

'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.

Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.

Since it is possible that thou mayest depart from life this very moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly. But to go away from among men, if there are gods, is not a thing to be afraid of, for the gods will not involve thee in evil; but if indeed they do not exist, or if they have no concern about human affairs, what is it to me to live in a universe devoid of gods or devoid of Providence? But Gods there are, undoubtedly, and they regard human affairs; and have put it wholly in our power, that we should not fall into what is truly evil.

Could I be assured that America would remain virtuous, I would venture to defy the utmost Efforts of Enemies to subjugate her.

Virtue is the truest liberty.

The man who wears the yellow-dyed robe but is not free from stains himself, without self-restraint and integrity, is unworthy of the robe.

Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics.

The unrighteous are never really fortunate.

In the Way of Heaven, there is no partiality of love; it is always on the side of the good man.

Just laws are no restraint upon the freedom of the good, for the good man desires nothing which a just law will interfere with.

Void of freedom, what would virtue be?

My confidence is that there will for a long time be virtue and good sense enough in our countrymen to correct abuses.

A man is free in proportion to the measure of his virtues, and the extent to which he is free determines what his virtues can accomplish.

A good man cannot be harmed either in life or in death, and his affairs are not neglected by the gods.

You have to have wisdom and knowledge as well as virtue to preserve your rights and liberties.