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No distance can keep anxious lovers long asunder.
GEORGE WASHINGTON, letter to the Marquis de Lafayette, Sep. 30, 1779
Amidst all the wonders recorded in holy writ no instance can be produced where a young woman from real inclination has preferred an old man.
GEORGE WASHINGTON, letter to the Marquis de Lafayette, Sep. 30, 1779
Facts may speak for themselves.
GEORGE WASHINGTON, letter to Major-General Greene, Jan. 22, 1780
Orders, unless they are followed by close attention to the performance of them, are of little avail.
GEORGE WASHINGTON, letter to Lord Stirling, Mar. 5, 1780
Example, whether it be good or bad, has a powerful influence.
GEORGE WASHINGTON, letter to Lord Stirling, Mar. 5, 1780
The best way to preserve the confidence of the people durably is to promote their true interests.
GEORGE WASHINGTON, letter to President Reed, Jul. 4, 1780
When any great object is in view, the popular mind is roused into expectation, and prepared to make sacrifices both of ease and property. If those, to whom they confide the management of their affairs, do not call them to make these sacrifices, and the object is not attained, or they are involved in the reproach of not having contributed as much as they ought to have done towards it, they will be mortified at the disappointment, they will feel the censure, and their resentment will rise against those, who, with sufficient authority, have omitted to do what their interest and their honor required.
GEORGE WASHINGTON, letter to President Reed, Jul. 4, 1780
Extensive powers not exercised as far as was necessary have, I believe, scarcely ever failed to ruin the possessor.
GEORGE WASHINGTON, letter to President Reed, Jul. 4, 1780
Unless the States will content themselves with a full and well-chosen representation in Congress and vest that body with absolute powers in all matters relative to the great purposes of war, and of general concern ... we are attempting an impossibility, and very soon shall become (if it is not already the case) a many-headed monster--a heterogenious mass--that never will or can steer to the same point.
GEORGE WASHINGTON, letter to Fielding Lewis, Jul. 6, 1780
To rectify past blunders is impossible, but we might profit by the experience of them.
GEORGE WASHINGTON, letter to Fielding Lewis, Jul. 6, 1780
Had we formed a permanent army in the beginning, which, by the continuance of the same men in service, had been capable of discipline, we never should have had to retreat with a handful of men across the Delaware in '76, trembling for the fate of America, which nothing but the infatuation of the enemy could have saved; we should not have remained all the succeeding winter at their mercy, with sometimes scarcely a sufficient body of men to mount the ordinary guards, liable at every moment to be dissipated, if they had only thought proper to march against us; we should not have been under the necessity of fighting at Brandywine, with an unequal number of raw troops, and afterwards of seeing Philadelphia fall a prey to a victorious army; we should not have been at Valley Forge with less than half the force of the enemy, destitute of every thing, in a situation neither to resist nor to retire; we should not have seen New York left with a handful of men, yet an overmatch for the main army of these States, while the principal part of their force was detached for the reduction of two of them; we should not have found ourselves this spring so weak, as to be insulted by five thousand men, unable to protect our baggage and Magazines, their security depending on a good countenance, and a want of enterprise in the enemy; we should not have been the greatest part of the war inferior to the enemy, indebted for our safety to their inactivity, enduring frequently the mortification of seeing inviting opportunities to ruin them pass unimproved for want of a force, which the country was completely able to afford; to see the Country ravaged, our towns burnt, the inhabitants plundered, abused, murdered with impunity from the same cause. There is every reason to believe, the War has been protracted on this account. Our opposition being less, made the successes of the enemy greater. The fluctuation of the army kept alive their hopes, and at every period of the dissolution of a considerable part of it, they have flattered themselves with some decisive advantages. Had we kept a permanent army on foot, the enemy could have had nothing to hope for, and would in all probability have listened to terms long since.
GEORGE WASHINGTON, letter to the President of Congress, Aug. 20, 1780
We ought not to look back, unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dear bought experience. To enveigh against things that are past and irremediable, is unpleasing; but to steer clear of the shelves and rocks we have struck upon, is the part of wisdom, equally as incumbent on political as other men, who have their own little bark, or that of others, to navigate through the intricate paths of life, or the trackless ocean, to the haven of security and rest.
GEORGE WASHINGTON, letter to Major-General Armstrong, Mar. 26, 1781
Without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it every thing honorable and glorious.
GEORGE WASHINGTON, letter to the Marquis de Lafayette
Conscience ... seldom comes to a man's aid while he is in the zenith of health and revelling in pomp and luxury upon illgotten spoils. It is generally the last act of his life, and it comes too late to be of much service to others here, or to himself hereafter.
GEORGE WASHINGTON, letter to John P. Posey, Aug. 7, 1782
Painful as the task is to describe the dark side of our affairs, it sometimes becomes a matter of indispensable necessity.
GEORGE WASHINGTON, letter to the Secretary at War, Oct. 2, 1782
It is not the mere study of the Law, but to become eminent in the profession of it, which is to yield honor and profit.
GEORGE WASHINGTON, letter to Bushrod Washington, Jan. 15, 1783
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.
GEORGE WASHINGTON, letter to Bushrod Washington, Jan. 15, 1783
Let your heart feel for the afflictions and distresses of every one, and let your hand give in proportion to your purse; remembering always the estimation of the widow's mite, but, that it is not every one who asketh that deserveth charity; all, however, are worthy of the inquiry, or the deserving may suffer.
GEORGE WASHINGTON, letter to Bushrod Washington, Jan. 15, 1783
Do not conceive that fine clothes make fine men any more than fine feathers make fine birds.
GEORGE WASHINGTON, letter to Bushrod Washington, Jan. 15, 1783
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