It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.
- Topic: Accountability, Honesty, Truth
- Location: Valley of Fire State Park
- Photo: Jeffrey Benjamin
More Quotes from George Washington
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.
I had always hoped that this land might become a safe & agreeable Asylum to the virtuous & persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong.
A primary object should be the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic, what species of knowledge can be equally important? And what duty more pressing than communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country.
More Quotes from Valley of Fire State Park
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The individual is not accountable to society for his actions, insofar as these concern the interests of no person but himself.
Blame it or praise it, there is no denying the wild horse in us.
I was in darkness, but I took three steps and found myself in paradise. The first step was a good thought, the second, a good word; and the third, a good deed.
Everybody, sooner or later, sits down to a banquet of consequences.
I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.
A thief is a man in need. A liar is a man in fear.
I have met men who are habitual liars. They have lied so long that they no longer can distinguish between the truth and a lie. Their sensitivity to sin has been almost completely deadened.
No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true.
It's the truth I'm after, and the truth never harmed anyone. What harms us is to persist in self-deceit and ignorance.
Many people resented my impatience and honesty, but I never cared about acceptance as much as I cared about respect.
When whole races and peoples conspire to propagate gigantic mute lies in the interest of tyrannies and shams, why should we care anything about the trifling lies told by individuals?
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.
And then she understood the devilish cunning of the enemies’ plan. By mixing a little truth with it they had made their lie far stronger.
Everything you say should be true but not everything true should be said.
Let us affirm what seems to be the truth, that, whether one is or is not, one and the others in relation to themselves and one another, all of them, in every way, are and are not, and appear to be and appear not to be.
Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.
No matter how outrageous a lie may be, it will be accepted if stated loudly enough and often enough.
