We hope you enjoy these interesting and insightful George Washington quotes.
“Bad seed is a robbery of the worst kind. Not only does your pocketbook suffer for it, but your preparations are lost and a season passes away unimproved.”
“Be courteous to all, but intimate with few; and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence.”
“Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable, procures success to the weak, and esteem to all.”
George Washington crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze | Public domain courtesy Wikimedia Commons
“Experience teaches us that it is much easier to prevent an enemy from posting themselves than it is to dislodge them after they have obtained possession.”
“Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance. They are the teeth of the people’s liberty.”
“Friendship is a plant of slow growth. It must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.”
“A people… who are possessed of the spirit of commerce, who see and who will pursue their advantages, may achieve almost anything.”
“Every post is honorable in which a man can serve his country.”
“Remember that it is the actions, and not the commission, that make the officer, and that there is more expected from him than the title.”
“A man’s intentions should be allowed in some respects to plead for his actions.”
“I shall make it the most agreeable part of my duty to study merit and reward the brave and deserving. I assure you, gentleman, that partiality shall never bias my conduct, nor shall prejudice injure any. … I shall endeavor, as far as I am able, to reward and punish without the least diminution.”
A note on this last quote: The book, Washington: Lessons in Leadership, by Gerald Carbone—from which we got this quote—points out that Washington’s reward and punishment based on merit alone was a “distinctly American style of leadership.” He argues that someone like Daniel Morgan, a wagon driver in the French and Indian War, could never have become a general in the British army.
We hope that you’ve found these George Washington quotes inspiring and thought-provoking!
