I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy.

Thirteen sovereignties pulling against each other and all tugging at the federal head, will soon bring ruin on the whole.

Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue?

Nothing is a greater stranger to my breast, or a sin that my soul more abhors, than that black and detestable one, ingratitude.

If we cannot learn wisdom from experience, it is hard to say where it is to be found.

By an ambitious chieftain, aiming only to aggrandize himself and establish his power, the subject might have been regarded in a different light; but the designs and actions of Washington centred in nobler objects, the freedom, tranquillity, and happiness of his country, in which he was to participate equally with every other citizen, neither seeking nor expecting any other preeminence than that of having been an instrument in the hand of Providence.

Let me live according to those holy rules which Thou hast this day prescribed in Thy Holy Word...direct me to the true object, Jesus Christ, the way, the truth, and the life. Bless, O Lord, all the people of this land.