Washington's Birthday is a United States federal holiday celebrated on the third Monday of February. It is also commonly known as Presidents Day. Titled Washington's Birthday, a federal holiday honoring George Washington was originally implemented by an Act of Congress in 1880 for government offices in the District of Columbia and expanded in 1885 to include all federal offices. As the first federal holiday to honor an American citizen, the holiday was celebrated on Washington's actual birthday, February 22. On January 1, 1971, the federal holiday was shifted to the third Monday in February by the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. This date places it between February 15 and 21, which makes the name "Washington's Birthday" a misnomer, since it never lands on Washington's actual birthday, which is February 22. While Washington's Birthday was originally established to honor George Washington, the term Presidents Day was informally coined in a deliberate attempt to use the holiday to honor multiple presidents, and is virtually always used that way today. In honor of Presidents Day, here are a few quotes by some of our most famous presidents, including Washington.
"Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company."--George Washington
"Facts are stubborn things."--John Adams
"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."--Abraham Lincoln
"So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."--FDR
"A child miseducated is a child lost."--JFK
"My fellow citizens, our Nation is poised for greatness. We must do what we know is right and do it with all our might. Let history say of us, "These were golden years - when the American Revolution was reborn, when freedom gained new life, when America reached for her best."--Ronald Regan
"Let us all take more responsibility, not only for ourselves and our families but for our communities and our country."--William J. Clinton
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