George Washington
George Washington was an American statesperson, army officer, and revolutionary who served as the first president of the United States.
Born on February 22, 1732, in Westmoreland County, he began life as a citizen of the Kingdom of Great Britain. His early pursuits were varied and practical: he worked as a farmer, and his activities also extended to cartography, engineering, and geometry, reflecting a range of applied disciplines that shaped his early career. These years as a British subject gave little indication of the role he would come to occupy in the founding of a new nation.
Washington's path into history ran through armed conflict. He served as commander of the Continental Army, leading Patriot forces to victory in the American Revolutionary War — a campaign that transformed him from a colonial officer into a central figure of the emerging republic. His military command brought him recognition in the form of the Congressional Gold Medal, and he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Both honors marked a public acknowledgment of his standing during a period of profound political upheaval. He was also a writer, composing in the English language, and the breadth of his roles — soldier, farmer, politician, engineer — gave his public life an unusually wide practical scope.
In 1789, Washington became the first president of the United States, an office he held until 1797. He is described as a Founding Father of the country and is commonly known by the epithet the Father of His Country, designations that reflect the particular weight his contemporaries and later generations attached to his political and military roles. Throughout his life he held citizenship first in the Kingdom of Great Britain and later in the United States, a biographical arc that mirrors the larger transformation of the nation itself.
Washington died on December 14, 1799, at Mount Vernon. His life spanned roles as revolutionary, commander-in-chief, statesperson, and farmer, and the recurring figure across those roles is one of practical engagement with the building of institutions — military, agricultural, and governmental — that defined the early American republic.
Quotes by George Washington
George Washington's insights on:
The mark of a successful party is that people hate to see it end, and it is the rare host who is not flattered to find people lingering. But there are limits and exceptions, and good guests know when to go home.
remember, the party is not about you; it's about your desire to bring pleasure to others.
Speak not injurious words neither in jest nor earnest; scoff at none, although they give occasion.
Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company
We should never despair; our situation before has been unpromising and has changed for the better, so I trust, it will again. If new difficulties arise, we must only put forth new exertions and proportion our efforts to the exigency of the times.
Tis substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.
We should never despair, our Situation before has been unpromising and has changed for the better, so I trust, it will again. If new difficulties arise, we must only put forth New Exertions and proportion our efforts to the exigency of the times.
The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent & respectable stranger but the oppressed & persecuted of all Nations & Religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges.
The nation which indulges toward another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest.