Washington

Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.

Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.

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

Occupants of public offices love power and are prone to abuse it.

To encourage literature and the arts is a duty which every good citizen owes to his country.

Worry is the interest paid by those who borrow trouble.
- All from George Washington, 1732 - 1799

About: George Washington was born in Virginia's Westmoreland County on 21 Feb in 1732. He learned surveying and worked in the frontier areas of Virginia until the French and Indian War. His abilities in leading troops earned the rank of lieutenant colonel at the age of 22. He served in the Virginia House of Burgesses, then as representative to both the First and Second Constitutional Conventions, the latter of which elected him unanimously as commander of the Continental forces in 1775. He went back to Mount Vernon after the war, but disappointed by the results of the early government he led the Virginia delegation to the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia. When the new constitution was ratified, Washington became the first president. By all accounts, Washington was brilliant and capable, of good character, and would have much rather spent many more years as a Virginia gentleman had the British Colonial government been more reasonable.