51+ George Washington Quotes About Strength to Build Courage

A good moral character is the first essential in a man. It is therefore highly important that you should endeavor not only to be learned but virtuous.

The hours allotted for study, if really applied to it, will enable you to make considerable progress in whatsoever line is marked out for you.

Rise early, that by habit it may become familiar, agreeable, healthy, and profitable. It may, for a while, be irksome to do this, but that will wear off, and the practice will produce a rich harvest forever thereafter.

System in all things should be aimed at, for in execution it renders every thing more easy.

Undertake not what you cannot perform, but be careful to keep your promise.

It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.

We must take human nature as we find it, perfection falls not to the share of mortals.

Integrity and firmness is all I can promise, these, be the voyage long or short, never shall forsake me though I be deserted by all men.

Patience is a noble virtue, and, when rightly exercised, does not fail of its reward.

It is much easier at all times to prevent an evil than to rectify mistakes.

Without virtue, and without integrity, the finest talents and the most brilliant accomplishments can never gain the respect, and conciliate the esteem, of the truly valuable part of mankind.

Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.

Happiness depends more upon the internal frame of a person’s own mind than on the externals in the world.

For it is a fixed principle with me, that whatever is done should be done well.

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.

Worry is the interest paid by those who borrow trouble.

Ours is a kind of struggle designed, I dare say, by Providence to try the patience, fortitude, and virtue of men. None, therefore, who is engaged in it, will suffer himself, I trust, to sink under difficulties, or be discouraged by hardships. If he cannot do as he wishes, he must do what he can.

Three things prompt men to a regular discharge of their duty in time of action, natural bravery, hope of reward, and fear of punishment.

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

Why should I expect to be exempt from censure, the unfailing lot of an elevated station?

Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors.

It is well, I die hard, but I am not afraid to go.

I walk on untrodden ground. There is scarcely any part of my conduct which may not hereafter be drawn into precedent.

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

Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable, procures success to the weak, and esteem to all.

Nothing can be more hurtful to the service, than the neglect of discipline, for that discipline, more than numbers, gives one army the superiority over another.

Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.

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.

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.

When we assumed the soldier, we did not lay aside the citizen.

If we cannot learn wisdom from experience, it is hard to say where it is to be found.

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.

When a man does all he can, though it succeeds not well, blame not him that did it.

From thinking proceeds speaking, thence to acting is often but a single step. But how irrevocable and tremendous.

I never say anything of a man that I have the smallest scruple of saying to him.

There is no practice more dangerous than that of borrowing money.

To contract new debts is not the way to pay old ones.

The company in which you will improve most will be least expensive to you.

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.

In the composition of the human frame there is a good deal of inflammable matter, however dormant it may lie for a time.

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

In executing the duties of my present important station, I can promise nothing but purity of intentions, and, in carrying these into effect, fidelity and diligence.

A people unused to restraint must be led, they will not be drove.

It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.

Truth will ultimately prevail where pains is taken to bring it to light.

Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.

To please everybody is impossible, were I to undertake it, I should probably please nobody.

Example, whether it be good or bad, has a powerful influence.

It is assuredly better to go laughing than crying thro’ the rough journey of life.

It is in vain, I perceive, to look for ease and happiness in a world of troubles.

Speak seldom, but to important subjects, and make yourself perfectly master of the subject.

Undertake not to teach your equal in the art himself professes, it savors arrogance.

Give not advice without being asked, and when desired, do it briefly.

System in all things is the soul of business. To deliberate maturely and execute promptly is the way to conduct it to advantage.

It is not the lowest priced goods that are always the cheapest, the quality is, or ought to be, as much an object with the purchaser as the price.

Associate yourself with men of good quality, if you esteem your own reputation, for it is better to be alone than in bad company.

Men’s minds are as variant as their faces.