Today is Washington's Birthday!

Like Washington

We cannot all be Washingtons,
     And have our birthdays celebrated;
But we can love the things he loved,
     And we can hate the things he hated.

He loved the truth, he hated lies,
     He minded what his mother taught him,
And every day he tried to do
     The simple duty that it brought him.

Perhaps the reason little folks
     Are sometimes great when they grow taller,
Is just because, like Washington,
     They do their best when they are smaller.

- Unknown

Washington

Washington, the brave, the wise, the good,

Supreme in war, in council, and in peace,

Valiant without ambition, discreet without fear,

Confident without presumption.

In disaster, calm; in success, moderate; in all, himself.

The hero, the patriot, the Christian.

The father of nations, the friend of mankind,

Who, when he had won all, renounced all,

Then sought in the bosom of his family and of nature, retirement,

And in the hope of religion, immortality.

- Inscription at Mount Vernon