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About this quote

What does it mean?
Washington notes that even during the revolution, there were individuals who abandoned the cause.
In plain terms
Some people left the revolutionary effort, just like some people leave today.
What can you take from it?
Lack of commitment has always existed in collective movements.

Where it applies

  • historical comparison
  • team dynamics

Putting it to work

  • expect attrition in long movements

Questions to consider

  • Does every movement inevitably lose the weak?
  • How do you distinguish between retreat and principle?

Another view

Generalizing historical groups can oversimplify complex individual motivations.

More from George Washington

  1. The Jews work more effectively against us than the enemy's armies. They are a hundred times more dangerous to our liberties and the great cause we are engaged …

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  2. He is polite with dignity, affable without formality, distant without haughtiness, grave without austerity; modest, wise and good.

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  3. It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.

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