“If men are to be precluded from offering their sentiments on a matter which may involve the most serious and alarming consequences that can invite the consideration of mankind, reason is of no use; the freedom of speech may be taken away, and dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” — George Washington

“The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position.” — George Washington

“Government is not reason, it is not eloquence. It is force, and like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.” – George Washington

“Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of Liberty abused to licentiousness.”
- George Washington

“Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.”
- George Washington

“It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy to deprive a man of his natural liberty upon the supposition he may abuse it.”
- George Washington

“Paper money has had the effect in your state that it will ever have, to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open the door to every species of fraud and injustice.”
- George Washington

“There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet an enemy.”
- George Washington

“Occupants of public offices love power and are prone to abuse it.”
- George Washington

“Happiness is more effectually dispensed to mankind under a republican (Republic) form of government than any other.”
- George Washington

“Republicanism is not the phantom of a deluded imagination. On the contrary, laws, under no form of government, are better supported, liberty and property better secured, or happiness more effectually dispensed to mankind.”
- George Washington

“I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of slavery.”
- George Washington

“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.”
- George Washington

“Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principles.”
- George Washington

“While we are contending for our own liberty, we should be very cautious not to violate the rights of conscience in others, ever considering that God alone is the judge of the hearts of men, and to him only in this case they are answerable.”
- George Washington

“As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is, to use it as sparingly as possible; avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but remembering also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it; avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts, which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burthen, which we ourselves ought to bear.”
- George Washington