"To encourage literature and the arts is..." - Quote by George Washington

“[T]he first transactions of a nation, like those of an individual upon his first entrance into life make the deepest impression, and are to form the leading traits in its character.”

“It is much easier at all times to prevent an evil than to rectify mistakes.”

“All see, and most admire, the glare which hovers round the external trappings of elevated office. To me there is nothing in it, beyond the lustre which may be reflected from its connection with a power of promoting human felicity.”

“If someone separated the art of counting and measuring and weighing from all the other arts, what was left of each (of the others) would be, so to speak, insignificant.”

“The Master said, I set my heart on the Way, base myself on virtue, lean upon benevolence for support and take my recreation in the arts.”

“Men of real talents in Arms have commonly approved themselves patrons of the liberal arts and friends to the poets, of their own as well as former times. In some instances by acting reciprocally, heroes have made poets, and poets heroes.”

“One battle doesn't make a campagin, but critics treat one book, good or bad, like a whole war.”

“When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature.”

“Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourses of my book friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness.”