Rachel’s Reviews > Washington: A Life > Status Update

"I am still determined to be cheerful and to be happy in whatever situation I may be, for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions and not upon our circumstances.” - Martha Washington

“‘Be courteous to all but intimate with few,’ he advised his nephew, ‘and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow growth.’”

“By the age of twenty-six, he had survived smallpox, pleurisy, malaria, and dysentery.
He had not only evaded bullets but survived disease with astounding regularity.”

“As president, he lectured a young relative about to enter college that “every hour misspent is lost forever” and that “future years cannot compensate for lost days at this period of your life.”