Key takeaways
- Every George Washington quote below is matched to the letter, address or document it comes from, with the date.
- His best-known words come from the Farewell Address of 1796, his Rules of Civility and his private letters, not from speeches.
- "I cannot tell a lie" comes from the Parson Weems biography, not from anything Washington wrote.
- Mount Vernon keeps a list of quotes wrongly credited to him, and several of the most shared lines are on it.
- Washington wrote in long, formal sentences, so the lines that work on a wall are usually short clauses lifted from longer passages.
George Washington left behind an enormous paper trail, and almost none of it sounds like the quotes that circulate under his name. He wrote formal, careful, often long sentences. The punchy one-liners attributed to him online are usually somebody else's, or a phrase cut loose from a paragraph that meant something different.
This list keeps the source attached. Each quote names the document and the date, checked against the published texts of his papers: the Farewell Address as printed by the Avalon Project at Yale Law School, his Rules of Civility, and John C. Fitzpatrick's edition of his writings, which runs to 39 volumes.
Which George Washington quotes are the most famous?
The most famous George Washington quotes come from the Farewell Address of 1796, his teenage copybook of Rules of Civility, and a handful of letters to friends and family. They are quoted in his original spelling below, in date order.
| Quote | Source | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| "Every Action done in Company ought to be with Some Sign of Respect, to those that are Present." | Rules of Civility, rule 1 | Copybook, about 1745 |
| "'tis better to be alone than in bad Company." | Rules of Civility, rule 56 | Copybook, about 1745 |
| "Discipline is the soul of an army." | Instructions to the company captains of the Virginia Regiment | July 29, 1757 |
| "Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder." | Letter to Major General Robert Howe | August 17, 1779 |
| "Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence." | Letter to his nephew Bushrod Washington | January 15, 1783 |
| "...true friendship is a plant of slow growth." | Letter to Bushrod Washington | January 15, 1783 |
| "...the character of an honest man." | Letter to Alexander Hamilton | August 28, 1788 |
| "...the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty." | First Inaugural Address | April 30, 1789 |
| "To be prepared for War is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace." | First Annual Message to Congress | January 8, 1790 |
| "...gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance." | Reply to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport | August 1790 |
| "...it is better to offer no excuse than a bad one." | Letter to his niece Harriet Washington | October 30, 1791 |
| "...honesty is always the best policy." | Farewell Address | September 19, 1796 |
| "Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all." | Farewell Address | September 19, 1796 |
What did Washington say in his Farewell Address?
He told the country to stay united, distrust political parties and keep clear of permanent foreign alliances. The address is dated September 19, 1796, near the end of his second term, and it is the source of more genuine Washington quotes than anything else he wrote.
The line everyone half remembers is longer than they think: "I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy." He also wrote that "It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world," and that "The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations."
His warning about faction is the passage most often cited today. He cautioned "in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally," a spirit he said was "inseparable from our nature."
What are George Washington's Rules of Civility?
They are 110 rules of polite behavior that Washington copied into a school exercise book as a teenager. The editor Moncure Conway, whose edition is free on Project Gutenberg, dates the copybook to 1745, when Washington was about fourteen, and traces the rules to a French Jesuit treatise of 1595.
So the Rules are not Washington's own philosophy so much as the etiquette he was trained in, but they shaped him, and several lines hold up. Rule 82 reads "Undertake not what you cannot Perform but be Carefull to keep your Promise." Rule 89 is shorter: "Speak not Evil of the absent for it is unjust." The last, rule 110, asks the reader to keep alive "that Little Spark of Celestial fire called Conscience."
What did Washington say about leadership and discipline?
He believed discipline made a small force effective, and he said so at twenty-five. In his instructions to the company captains of the Virginia Regiment on July 29, 1757, he wrote: "Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all."
The same realism runs through his later letters. Writing to General Robert Howe in August 1779, he warned that "Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder." And in his First Annual Message to Congress in January 1790 he argued that "To be prepared for War is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace."
What did Washington say about friendship and character?
He told young relatives to choose friends slowly and own their mistakes. To his nephew Bushrod in January 1783 he wrote: "Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence; true friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation."
To his niece Harriet in October 1791, he explained that he was correcting her "for no other reason than to shew you it is better to offer no excuse than a bad one." And to Alexander Hamilton in 1788 he hoped he would always keep "the character of an honest man," which he called "the most enviable of all titles."
Which famous Washington quotes did he never say?
Quite a few, and George Washington's Mount Vernon keeps a running list of spurious quotations sent to its library. The most famous of all is "I cannot tell a lie."
That line comes from the cherry tree story in Mason Locke Weems' biography of Washington, which Mount Vernon says first appeared in its fifth edition. Weems credited the tale to "an aged lady, who was a distant relative," and assured readers it was "too true to be doubted." Washington himself never wrote it.
Two others are worth knowing. "Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force" is a quote Mount Vernon's library says it has yet to explain or trace to anyone. "It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible" is often pinned to the Farewell Address, but it is not in that text, and Mount Vernon says the statement has never been proven to have come from Washington. I also searched all 39 volumes of Fitzpatrick's edition for both lines and found neither.
How can you check a George Washington quote?
Ask which letter or document it comes from, then find that document. Washington's writings have been edited and published, first by Fitzpatrick and now online through Founders Online, a National Archives website, so a real line can almost always be traced to a dated page.
- Look for a named recipient and date, such as "to Bushrod Washington, January 15, 1783."
- Search two or three distinctive words, not the full sentence, because quotes drift as they are repeated.
- Check Mount Vernon's list of spurious quotations before sharing anything political.
- Read the sentence around the quote. "Honesty is always the best policy" is about keeping treaties, not personal advice.
- Be wary of modern rhythm. Washington wrote "shew" and "'tis," not slogans.
Which Washington quotes work on a wall?
Short clauses with a clear source. "Discipline is the soul of an army," "True friendship is a plant of slow growth" and "It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one" all read in a glance and carry their date with them. The longer Farewell Address passages suit a study or a library wall, where people stop and read.
Washington also works as a portrait rather than a text. Washington On Tape paints him threading tape through a reel-to-reel machine by candlelight, quills still on the desk, in the style of a period oil portrait. It belongs to the historical figure wall art collection, a series that drops famous figures into modern creative work. For the tape side of the idea, see why cassette and tape imagery works on a wall, and for words on canvas, choosing quote wall art that means something. Each piece is a single gallery-wrapped canvas, made to order in Europe and ready to hang, with a floating frame as the optional upgrade.
Featured historical figure pieces
Frequently asked questions
What is George Washington's most famous quote?
The most quoted genuine line is probably "honesty is always the best policy," from the Farewell Address of September 19, 1796. "I cannot tell a lie" is better known but comes from Parson Weems' biography, not from Washington.
Did George Washington really say "I cannot tell a lie"?
No record shows him saying it. The line comes from the cherry tree story in Mason Locke Weems' biography, which credited it to an unnamed elderly relative. Mount Vernon lists it among the quotations wrongly attributed to Washington.
What are the Rules of Civility?
A list of 110 rules of good manners that Washington copied into a school exercise book around 1745, when he was about fourteen. They trace back to a French Jesuit guide of 1595, so they show what he was taught rather than what he invented.
What did George Washington say about the future?
His First Inaugural Address of April 30, 1789, described the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty as staked on the experiment entrusted to the American people. The Farewell Address of 1796 is his longest statement of hopes and warnings for the country.
Where can I read Washington's letters?
Founders Online, a National Archives website, publishes the modern edition of his papers. John C. Fitzpatrick's 39-volume edition of his writings is older and also widely available, and the Avalon Project at Yale prints the Farewell Address.
