Presidents' Day, also known as Washington's Birthday, is observed Monday, February 20, 2012 this year, and Americans have been busy searching the internet for historical quotes by Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, along with some current quotes from President Obama.
President Barack Obama, on a three-day fundraising tour of the west coast including San Francisco, was quoted February 17th as saying,
"In the United States of America, we are greater together than we are on our own." Wise words from President Obama!
First Lady Michelle Obama's Quotes
Perhaps the best presidential quote this year so far has come from President Barack Obama's wife Michelle regarding Valentine's Day. First Lady Michelle Obama Monday was quoted as saying,
"He (President Obama) always has to plan Valentine’s. That’s his job. I think there may be a date night. There’s something scheduled. It’s hard for him to pull off the big surprise when you’ve got a motorcade and police escorts and all that stuff." The President is even known to be "very romantic."
Fourscore and Seven Years Ago...
- Abraham Lincoln's most famous quote is from the Gettysburg Address speech, "Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."
George Washington Quotes
- "I cannot tell a lie, father, you know I cannot tell a lie! I did cut it with my little hatchet."
- "I am just going. Have me decently buried and do not let my body be into a vault in less than two days after I am dead. Do you understand me? . . . 'Tis well." (Washington's last words)
- "Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for 'tis better to be alone than in bad company."
- "Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience."
- "I conceive that a knowledge of books is the basis on which all other knowledge rests."
- "Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth."
- "Government is not reason, it is not eloquence—it is force."
- "Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder."
- "Doctor, I die hard, but I am not afraid to go."
Abraham Lincoln Quotes
- "A house divided against itself cannot stand."
- "God must love the common man, he made so many of them."
- "Everybody likes a compliment."
- "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
- "As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy."
- "Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?"
- "Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties."
- "I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end... I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me."
What's Open, What's Closed on Presidents' Day/Washington's Birthday in Rhode Island
Locally here in the Providence, Rhode Island area, most banks, some government offices and schools will be closed on Presidents' Day 2012. Additionally, there is no mail delivery service as U.S. post offices in Rhode Island will be closed to observe the federal holiday.
Sources: Quote Garden; Brainy Quote; 123Holiday.net
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
