61+ George Washington Inspirational Quotes to Motivate You to Live with Purpose

Perseverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages.

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

Rise early, that by habit it may become familiar, agreeable, healthy, and profitable.

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

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

We should not look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors.

The harder the conflict, the greater the triumph.

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

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

Human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.

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

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

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

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

I wish to walk in such a line as will give most general satisfaction.

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

In general I esteem it a good maxim, that the best way to preserve the confidence of the people durably is to promote their true interest.

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

I shall make it the most agreeable part of my duty to study merit, and reward the brave and deserving.

A variety in punishment is of utility, as well as a proportion.

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.

Experience has taught us that men will not adopt and carry into execution measures the best calculated for their own good without the intervention of a coercive power.

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.

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

It is an old adage that honesty is the best policy, this applies to public as well as private life, to States as well as individuals.

I hate deception, even where the imagination only is concerned.

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

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

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

Nothing is a greater stranger to my breast, or a sin that my soul more abhors, than that black and detestable one, ingratitude.

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

Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.

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.

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

The due administration of justice is the firmest pillar of good government.

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

The best and only safe road to honor, glory, and true dignity is justice.

Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.

The power under the Constitution will always be in the people.

I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations in examples of justice and liberality.

The Constitution is the guide which I never will abandon.

For if men are to be precluded from offering their sentiments on a matter, reason is of no use to us, the freedom of speech may be taken away, and, dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep, to the slaughter.

There never was a law yet made that hit the taste exactly of every man, or every part of the community.

The foundation of our empire was not laid in the gloomy age of ignorance and superstition, but at an epoch when the rights of mankind were better understood and more clearly defined than at any former period.

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

It is better to be alone than in bad company.

True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.

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

Good company will always be found much less expensive than bad.

It is easy to make acquaintances, but very difficult to shake them off, however irksome and unprofitable they are found, after we have once committed ourselves to them.

The most certain way to make a man your enemy is to tell him you esteem him such.

It is infinitely better to have a few good men than many indifferent ones.

The views of men can only be known, or guessed at, by their words or actions.

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

Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness.

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

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.

I am not only retired from all public employments, but I am retiring within myself, and shall be able to view the solitary walk and tread the paths of private life with heartfelt satisfaction.

I will move gently down the stream of life until I sleep with my fathers.

With a heart full of love and gratitude, I now take leave of you.

Men’s minds are as variant as their faces.

The Arts and Sciences, essential to the prosperity of the state and to the ornament of human life, have a primary claim to the encouragement of every lover of his country and mankind.

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

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.