Nothing is more beautiful than the loveliness of the woods before sunrise.

Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.

“My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her.”

“My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth.”

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

“True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity, before it is entitled to the appellation.”

“Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”

“Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, called conscience.”

“I have always considered marriage as the most interesting event of one’s life, the foundation of happiness or misery.”

“Be courteous to all, but intimate with a few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence.” – George Washington

“If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for War.”

“The foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing is a vice so mean and low that every person of sense and character detests and despises it.”

“I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.”

“The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism.”

“Lenience will operate with greater force, in some instances than rigor. It is therefore my first wish to have all of my conduct distinguished by it.”

“To be prepared for war is one of the most effective ways of preserving peace.”

“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.”

“The basis of our political system is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government.”

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

“The Constitution is the guide which I never will abandon.”

“There is nothing which can better deserve your patronage, than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness.”

“Laws made by common consent must not be trampled on by individuals.”

“Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation.”

“Some day, following the example of the United States of America, there will be a United States of Europe.”

“Religion is as necessary to reason as reason is to religion. The one cannot exist without the other. A reasoning being would lose his reason, in attempting to account for the great phenomena of nature, had he not a Supreme Being to refer to; and well has it been said, that if there had been no God, mankind would have been obliged to imagine one.”

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

“Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the week, and esteem to all.” – George Washington

“Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the week, and esteem to all.” – George Washington

“Nothing can be more hurtful to the service, than the neglect of discipline; for that discipline, more than numbers, gives one army the superiority over another.”

“Friendship is a plant of slow growth and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.”

“Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.”

“War – An act of violence whose object is to constrain the enemy, to accomplish our will.”

“A slender acquaintance with the world must convince every man that actions, not words, are the true criterion of the attachment of friends.”

“There can be no greater error than to expect, or calculate, upon real favors from nation to nation. It is an illusion which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard.”

“Worry is the interest paid by those who borrow trouble.”

“My observation is that whenever one person is found adequate to the discharge of a duty… it is worse executed by two persons, and scarcely done at all if three or more are employed therein.”

“I beg you be persuaded that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.”

“I know of no pursuit in which more real and important services can be rendered to any country than by improving its agriculture, its breed of useful animals, and other branches of a husbandman’s cares.”

“I am persuaded, you will permit me to observe, that the path of true piety is so plain as to require but little political direction.”

“The Constitution which at any time exists, ’till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole People is sacredly obligatory upon all.”

“To form a new Government, requires infinite care, and unbounded attention; for if the foundation is badly laid the superstructure must be bad.”

“The tumultuous populace of large cities are ever to be dreaded. Their indiscriminate violence prostrates for the time all public authority, and its consequences are sometimes extensive and terrible.”

“Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.”

“The establishment of Civil and Religious Liberty was the Motive which induced me to the Field — the object is attained — and it now remains to be my earnest wish & prayer, that the Citizens of the United States could make a wise and virtuous use of the blessings placed before them.”

“But if we are to be told by a foreign power what we shall do, and what we shall not do, we have Independence yet to seek, and have contended hitherto for very little.”

“Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for, I have grown not only gray, but almost blind in the service of my country.”

“It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.”

“Government is not reason and it is not eloquence. It is force! Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.”

“I do not mean to exclude altogether the idea of patriotism. I know it exists, and I know it has done much in the present contest. But I will venture to assert, that a great and lasting war can never be supported on this principle alone. It must be aided by a prospect of interest, or some reward.”

“The foundations of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens, and command the respect of the world.”