Government is not reason it is not eloquence - it is force.

— George Washington

Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.

— George Washington

Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.

— George Washington

Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest.

— George Washington

Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theater 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. (Address to Congress on Resigning Commission Dec 23, 1783)

— George Washington

Heaven itself has ordained the right.

— George Washington

Hence, likewise, they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments, which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to Republican Liberty. In this sense it is, that your Union ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other.

— George Washington

Human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.

— George Washington

I beg leave to assure the Congress that no pecuniary consideration could have tempted me to accept this arduous employment at the expense of my domestic ease and happiness. I do not wish to make any profit from it.

— George Washington

I conceive a knowledge of books is the basis upon which other knowledge is to be built.

— George Washington