George Washington

Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.

Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow grow, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.

Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.

Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.

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

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

Money, we know, will fetch anything and command the service of any man.

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

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

Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.

The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish Government, presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established Government.

'Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.

Differences in political opinion are as unavoidable as, to a certain point, they may perhaps be necessary.

The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered ... deeply ... finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.

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

As Mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality.

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

Be courteous to all, but intimate with few and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence.

The only competition worthy of a wise man is with himself.

Distinction is the consequence, never the object of a great mind.

Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough. Not only have I found that when I talk to the little flower or to the little peanut they will give up their secrets, but I have found that when I silently commune with people they give up their secrets also - if you love them enough.

Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.

How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these.