George Washington 2

He was not accustomed to argue points of faith, but on one occasion, in reply to a gentleman who expressed doubts on the subject, thus gave his sentiments:—

"It is impossible to account for the creation of the universe without the agency of a Supreme Being.

"It is impossible to govern the universe without the aid of a Supreme Being.

"It is impossible to reason without arriving at a Supreme Being. Religion is as necessary to reason, as reason is to religion. The one cannot exist without the other. A reasoning being would lose his reason in attempting to account for the great phenomena of nature, had he not a Supreme Being to refer to; and well has it been said, that if there had been no God, mankind would have been obliged to imagine one."

From James Kirke Paulding, A Life of Washington, New York, 1835, volume 2, pp. 209-10. Paulding gives no source for this quotation and it has not surfaced since.