George Washington

Government is at best a petulant servant and at worst a tyrannical master.

If you can't sent money, send tobacco.

The best means of forming a manly, virtuous, and happy people will be found in the right education of youth. Without this foundation, every other means, in my opinion, must fail.

We ought to deprecate the hazard attending ardent and susceptible minds, from being too strongly, and too early prepossessed in favor of other political systems, before they are capable of appreciating their own.

The crisis is arrived when we must assert our rights, or submit to every imposition, that can be heaped upon us, till custom and use shall make us as tame and abject slaves, as the blacks we rule over with such arbitrary sway.

[V]irtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.

The aggregate happiness of the society, which is best promoted by the practice of a virtuous policy, is, or ought to be, the end of all government . . . .

I can never think of promoting my convenience at the expense of a friend's interest and inclination.

Let thy carriage be such as becomes a man grave settled and attentive to that which is spoken. Contradict not, at every turn, what others say.

It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious.

It is the child of avarice, the brother of iniquity, and the father of mischief.

I do not mean to exclude altogether the idea of patriotism. I know it exists, and I know it has done much in the present contest. But I will venture to assert, that a great and lasting war can never be supported on this principle alone. It must be aided by a prospect of interest, or some reward.

Every post is honourable in which a man can serve his country.

To place any dependence upon militia, is, assuredly, resting upon a broken staff.

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

To point out the importance of circumspection in your conduct, it may be proper to observe that a good moral character is the first essential in a man, and that the habits contracted at your age are generally indelible, and your conduct here may stamp your character through life. It is therefore highly important that you should endeavor not only to be learned but virtuous.

One of the difficulties in bringing about change in an organization is that you must do so through the persons who have been most successful in that organization, no matter how faulty the system or the organization is. To such persons, you see, it is the best of all possible organizations, because look who was selected by it ad look who succeeded most in it. Yet, these are the very people through whom we must bring about improvements.

To encourage literature and the arts is a duty which every good citizen owes to his country.

Strive not with your superiors in argument, but always submit your judgment to others with modesty.

[death]...the abyss from where no traveler is permitted to return

99% percent of failures are the ones who make excuses.