George Washington Burnap (November 30, 1802, in Merrimack, New Hampshire – September 8, 1859, in Baltimore) was a Unitarian clergyman of the United States.
[1] In 1828 he was ordained pastor of the First Independent Church in Baltimore, where Jared Sparks had preceded him, and which position he retained till his death.
Without neglecting his pastoral duties, Burnap devoted much of his career to studies, mostly oriented toward explaining Unitarianism to the public and justifying its doctrines in the face of its critics.
[2] He was the first person to write "The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for" in his Lectures on the Sphere and Duties of Woman.
[3] This quote is often misattributed to such writers as Immanuel Kant and Joseph Addison.