Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for, I have grown not only gray, but almost blind in the service of my country.

While trying to calm anxious Continental Army officers frustrated with Congress near the end of the American War of Independence, Washington revealed to the assembled officers, for the first time, that he had begun wearing glasses.  His gesture was a chance to remind them of just how long he had served, without pay, during the war. While this quote does not appear in Washington's prepared statements, it is attributed to him by two eyewitnesses, David Cobb and Samuel Shaw.

Statement while delivering response to the first Newburgh Address | Saturday, March 15, 1783