George Washington

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

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. ”

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

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. ”

The time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves. ”

I walk on untrodden ground. There is scarcely any part of my conduct which may not hereafter be drawn into precedent. ”

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

It may be laid down as a primary position, and the basis of our system, that every Citizen who enjoys the protection of a Free Government, owes not only a proportion of his property, but even of his personal services to the defense of it. ”