I often say of George Washington that he was one of the few in the whole history of the world who was not carried away by power.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
You think of George Washington, this man who was larger than life, and in some ways he was. But at the same time, he's just a person.
Jimmy Carter was - he still - he remains to this day America's most ex of ex-presidents. You just can't believe that we elected this doofus. He was a bright enough guy and sort of well-meaning. But he was about as prepared to be president of the United States as your goofy old uncle, you know, the one that memorises baseball statistics.
The irony is that Washington was, in reality, very much like Benedict Arnold. The big difference was that Washington was ultimately able to control his emotions, something Arnold never learned to do.
George C. Scott, man, was a powerful dude.
We think of Washington as the defensive-minded pragmatist who won the Revolution by avoiding unnecessary risks on the battlefield. But that was not how he started out.
For example, a man who might not have enormous charisma, who could be president 40 years ago, and who was a deserving president, I don't know that George Washington would be a president today, I don't know that Abe Lincoln would, I don't know that Roosevelt would.
Washington, not Jefferson, freed his slaves upon his death.
Few American presidents are held in higher esteem than Thomas Jefferson. Though historians have scrutinized every phase of his long public career and found him wanting in a number of respects, he holds an unshakable place in the pantheon of American heroes.
Lyndon Johnson, I know for a fact, was a great president. And I don't mean by that he was a great man.
George Washington, as a boy, was ignorant of the commonest accomplishments of youth. He could not even lie.