What the Forefathers Said: George Washington

This is the third in a series that I am calling “What the Forefathers Said,” in which I will post quotes from America’s founding fathers that have just as much immediate importance today as when they were spoken.

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These statements are attributed to George Washington

1) “We should not look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dearly bought experience.”

2) “If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”

3) “There can be no greater error than to expect, or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation.”

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

5) “[Partisanship] agitates the community with ill founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection [and can open] “the door to foreign influence and corruption.”*

6) “However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”*

7) “One of the expedients of party to acquire influence, within particular districts, is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts.”

8) “Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.”

9) “Let me conjure you, in the name of our common Country—as you value your own sacred honor—as you respect the rights of humanity, & as you regard the Military & national character of America, to express your utmost horror & detestation of the Man who wishes, under any specious pretences, to overturn the liberties of our Country.”

10) “A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite.”

11) “There is nothing which can better deserve your patronage, than the promotion of science and literature.”

12) “The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, until changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all.”

13) “The power under the Constitution will always be in the people.”

14) “Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness.”

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George Washington did NOT say/write the following, which is only a short list of quotes falsely attributed to him:

1) "I cannot tell a lie, Pa"

The history of "I cannot tell a lie, Pa" comes from the Parson Mason Weems biography of the young George Washington

2) "It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible.”

3) "When government takes away citizens' right to bear arms it becomes citizens' duty to take away government's right to govern.”

4) "Continued deficit spending must ultimately endanger all governments.”

5) "Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people’s liberty, teeth and keystone under independence." 

The misattribution became popular in the 1970s and 1980s, appearing in newspapers and later in political contexts, such as a 2016 Washington state bill called the “Firearms Civil Rights Act”

6) "Make the most of the Indian hemp seed and sow it everywhere.”

7) "What is most important of this grand experiment, the United States? Not the election of the first president but the election of its second president. The peaceful transition of power is what will separate this country from every other country in the world.”

8) "What students would learn in American schools above all is the religion of Jesus Christ.” Or “The future of this nation depends on the Christian training of our youth.” Or anything of the sort.

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If they are not listed above, please post your favorite George Washington quotes in the comments below.

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