I cannot tell a lie, I did it with my little hatchet.
• Variant:Father, I cannot tell a lie, I cut the tree." - Meaning and context.">
The earliest source of this quote was a famous anecdote in The Life of George Washington, with Curious Anecdotes Laudable to Himself and Exemplary to his Countrymen (1806) by Parson Weems, which is not considered a credible source, and many incidents recounted in the work are now considered to have sprung entirely from Weems’ imagination. This derives from an anecdote of Washington, as a young boy, confessing to his father Augustine Washington that it was he who had cut a cherished cherry tree.
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I cannot tell a lie, I did it with my little hatchet.
• Variant:Father, I cannot tell a lie, I cut the tree.

— George Washington

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "I cannot tell a lie, I did it with my little hatchet.
• Variant:Father, I cannot tell a lie, I cut the tree." in the context of "The earliest source of this quote was a famous anecdote in The Life of George Washington, with Curious Anecdotes Laudable to Himself and Exemplary to his Countrymen (1806) by Parson Weems, which is not considered a credible source, and many incidents recounted in the work are now considered to have sprung entirely from Weems’ imagination. This derives from an anecdote of Washington, as a young boy, confessing to his father Augustine Washington that it was he who had cut a cherished cherry tree." to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "George Washington" (Misattributed: Statements originally made by others, that have become wrongly attributed to Washington , Spurious attributions: Statements which evidence indicates are fabrications, never actually said by anyone prior to their being attributed to Washington.) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed February 05, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app

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George Washington

About George Washington

George Washington (22 February 1732 – 14 December 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Second Continental Congress as commander of the Continental Army in June 1775, Washington led Patriot forces to victory in the American Revolutionary War and then served as president of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, which drafted and ratified the Constitution of the United States and established the American federal government. Washington has thus been called the "Father of his Country".