Elizabeth Willing Powel

Elizabeth Willing Powel (February 21, 1743 – January 17, 1830) was an American socialite and patriot.

Quotes

 * I presume your Grand Children are with you, and doubt not that they will afford you every consolation that existing Circumstances will admit. Present me affectionately and sympathetically to them they also have lost a protecting affectionate Connection, and I have lost a much valued Friend.
 * To Martha Washington upon the death of George Washington, as quoted in


 * I have certainly experienced severe trials, and some hard dispensations of Providence … To travel with some dignity, innocence, and usefulness, down the Road which leads from the Morning of Youth to the Night of the Grave, is perhaps as much as we can flatter ourselves with accomplishing.
 * As quoted in

Benjamin Franklin: A republic, Madam, if you can keep it. Powel: And why not keep it? Franklin: Because the people, on tasting the dish, are always disposed to eat more of it than does them good.
 * Powel: Well, Doctor, what have we got?
 * As quoted in


 * Your resignation wou'd elate the Enemies of good Government...They would say that you were actuated by Principles of self-Love alone—that you saw the Post was not tenable with any Prospect of adding to your Fame. The antifederalists would use it as an argument for dissolving the Union, and would urge that you, from Experience, had found the present System a bad one, and had, artfully, withdrawn from it that you might not be crushed under its Ruins.
 * Letter to George Washington, on his intent to step down after his first term as president, as quoted in


 * [You] have frequently demonstrated that you possess an Empire over yourself. For Gods sake do not yield that Empire to a Love of Ease, Retirement, rural Pursuits, or a false Diffidence of Abilities which those that best know you so justly appreciate. Convince the World then that you are a practical Philosopher, and that your native Philanthropy has inducted you to relinquish an Object so Essiential to your Happiness...That you are not indifferent to the Plaudits of the World I must conclude when I believe that the love of honest Fame has and ever will be predominate in the best the noblest and most capable Natures. Nor is the Approbation of Mankind to be disregarded with Impunity even by you.
 * Letter to George Washington, on his intent to step down after his first term as president, as quoted in

Quotes about Powel

 * Contrary to American custom, [Mrs. Powel] plays the leading role in the family. What chiefly distinguishes her is her taste for conversation [and] her wit and knowledge.
 * Credited to "a French noblemen", as quoted in


 * [The Powels were] difficult to separate from each other, who lived together not as man and wife… but as two friends, happily matched in point of understanding, taste, and information.
 * François Jean de Beauvoir, Marquis de Chastellux, as quoted in


 * Dined at Mr. Powells -- A most sinfull Feast again! Every Thing which could delight the Eye, or allure the Taste.
 * John Adams in his diary, as quoted in


 * Like Mira, Virtue’s Self possess Let her adorn your Mind For Virtue in a pleasing dress Has Charms for all Mankind Her spotless Mantle shall be shown When its blest Owner flies The Flaming Chariot make it known When Soaring to the Skies.
 * Lines, by a Friend, addressed to Mrs Elizabeth Powel on her Birth Day of Fifty Years February 21. 179⟨3⟩, poem by Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson commissioned by George Washington for Powel as a gift for her 50th birthday, as quoted in


 * When in society she will animate and give a brilliancy to the whole Conversation; you know the uncommons command she has of Language and her ideas flow with rapidity.
 * Anne Willing Francis, as quoted in