Alexander Hamilton was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795 during George Washington’s presidency. Born out of wedlock in Charlestown, Nevis, Hamilton was orphaned as a child and taken in by a prosperous merchant.
Alexander Hamilton Quote’s
1. “Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.”
— Alexander Hamilton
2. “People sometimes attribute my success to my genius; all the genius I know anything about is hard work.”
— Alexander Hamilton
3. “A well adjusted person is one who makes the same mistake twice without getting nervous.”
— Alexander Hamilton
4. “The loss of liberty to a generous mind is worse than death.”
— Alexander Hamilton
5. “Learn to think continentally.”
— Alexander Hamilton
6. “I have thought it my duty to exhibit things as they are, not as they ought to be.”
— Alexander Hamilton
7. “I never expect to see a perfect work from an imperfect man.”
— Alexander Hamilton
8. “A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one.”
— Alexander Hamilton
9. “When the sword is once drawn, the passions of men observe no bounds of moderation.”
— Alexander Hamilton
10. “The art of reading is to skip judiciously.”
— Alexander Hamilton
11. “Ambition without principle never was long under the guidance of good sense.”
— Alexander Hamilton
12. “A promise must never be broken.”
— Alexander Hamilton
13. “Divide et impera must be the motto of every nation that either hates or fears us.”
— Alexander Hamilton
14. “Our countrymen have all the folly of the ass and all the passiveness of the sheep.”
— Alexander Hamilton
15. “It’s not tyranny we desire; it’s a just, limited, federal government.”
— Alexander Hamilton
16. “The people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government and to reform, alter, or totally change the same when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it.”
— Alexander Hamilton
17. “Give all the power to the many, they will oppress the few. Give all the power to the few, they will oppress the many.”
— Alexander Hamilton
18. “Man is either governed by his own laws – freedom – or the laws of another – slavery. Are you willing to become slaves? Will you give up your freedom, your life and your property without a single struggle? No man has a right to rule over his fellow creatures.”
— Alexander Hamilton
19. “Experience is the oracle of truth; and where its responses are unequivocal, they ought to be conclusive and sacred.”
— Alexander Hamilton
20. “There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism.”
— Alexander Hamilton
21. “Effective resistance to usurpers is possible only provided the citizens understand their rights and are disposed to defend them.”
— Alexander Hamilton
22. “Hard words are very rarely useful. Real firmness is good for every thing. Strut is good for nothing.”
— Alexander Hamilton
23. “The deliberative sense of the community should govern.”
— Alexander Hamilton
24. “The honor of a nation is its life. Deliberately to abandon it is to commit an act of political suicide.”
— Alexander Hamilton
25. “The love for our native land strengthens our individual and national character.”
— Alexander Hamilton
26. “The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased.”
— Alexander Hamilton
27. “A powerful, victorious ally is yet another name for master.”
— Alexander Hamilton
28. “We must make the best of those ills which cannot be avoided.”
— Alexander Hamilton
29. “We are attempting, by this Constitution, to abolish factions, and to unite all parties for the general welfare.”
— Alexander Hamilton
30. “The Liberty of the press consists in the right to publish with impunity truth with good motives for justifiable ends, though reflecting on government, magistracy, or individuals.”
— Alexander Hamilton
31. “Americans rouse – be unanimous, be virtuous, be firm, exert your courage, trust in Heaven, and nobly defy the enemies both of God and man!”
— Alexander Hamilton
32. “It is the Press which has corrupted our political morals – and it is to the Press we must look for the means of our political regeneration.”
— Alexander Hamilton
33. “Government is frequently and aptly classed under two descriptions-a government of force, and a government of laws; the first is the definition of despotism-the last, of liberty.”
— Alexander Hamilton
34. “No person that has enjoyed the sweets of liberty can be insensible of its infinite value, or can reflect on its reverse without horror and detestation.”
— Alexander Hamilton
35. “We are now forming a republican government. Real liberty is never found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments.”
— Alexander Hamilton
36. “A national debt if it is not excessive will be to us a national blessing; it will be powerfull cement of our union. It will also create a necessity for keeping up taxation to a degree which without being oppressive, will be a spur to industry;.”
— Alexander Hamilton
37. “Laws are a dead letter without courts to expound and define their true meaning and operation.”
— Alexander Hamilton
38. “What is the most sacred duty and the greatest source of our security in a Republic? An inviolable respect for the Constitution and Laws.”
— Alexander Hamilton
39. “The civil jury is a valuable safeguard to liberty.”
— Alexander Hamilton
40. “Nobody expects to trust his body overmuch after the age of fifty.”
— Alexander Hamilton
41. “Can any reasonable man be well disposed toward a government which makes war and carnage the only means of supporting itself?”
— Alexander Hamilton
42. “Industry is increased, commodities are multiplied, agriculture and manufacturers flourish: and herein consists the true wealth and prosperity of a state.”
— Alexander Hamilton
43. “The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge right or make good decision.”
— Alexander Hamilton
44. “A feeble executive implies a feeble execution of the government. A feeble execution is but another phrase for a bad execution; and a government ill executed, whatever may be its theory, must be, in practice, a bad government.”
— Alexander Hamilton
45. “The masses are asses.”
— Alexander Hamilton
46. “Nothing could be more ill-judged than that intolerant spirit which has, at all times, characterized political parties.”
— Alexander Hamilton
47. “You should not have taken advantage of my sensibility to steal into my affections without my consent.”
— Alexander Hamilton
48. “The passions of a revolution are apt to hurry even good men into excesses.”
— Alexander Hamilton
49. “A sacred respect for the constitutional law is the vital principle, the sustaining energy of a free government.”
— Alexander Hamilton
50. “Remember civil and religious liberty always go together: if the foundation of the one be sapped, the other will fall of course.”
— Alexander Hamilton
51. “The citizens of America have too much discernment to be argued into anarchy. And I am much mistaken, if experience has not wrought a deep and solemn conviction in the public mind, that greater energy of government is essential to the welfare and prosperity of the community.”
— Alexander Hamilton
52. “As to religion a moderate stock will satisfy me. She must believe in god and hate a saint.”
— Alexander Hamilton
53. “Civil liberty is only natural liberty, modified and secured by the sanctions of civil society. It is not a thing, in its own nature, precarious and dependent on human will and caprice; but it is conformable to the constitution of man, as well as necessary to the well-being of society.”
— Alexander Hamilton
54. “I would die to preserve the law upon a solid foundation; but take away liberty, and the foundation is destroyed.”
— Alexander Hamilton
55. “A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.”
— Alexander Hamilton
56. “The increasing remoteness of consanguinity is everyday diminishing the force of the family compact between France and Spain. And politicians have ever with great reason considered the ties of blood as feeble and precarious links of political connection.”
— Alexander Hamilton
57. “Schemes to subvert the liberties of a great community require time to mature them for execution.”
— Alexander Hamilton
58. “Establish that a Government may decline a provision for its debts, though able to make it, and you overthrow all public morality, you unhinge all the principles that must preserve the limits of free constitutions.”
— Alexander Hamilton
59. “Our great error is that we suppose mankind to be more honest than they are.”
— Alexander Hamilton
60. “To model our political system upon speculations of lasting tranquility, is to calculate on the weaker springs of the human character.”
— Alexander Hamilton
61. “Take mankind in general, they are vicious-their passions may be operated upon.”
— Alexander Hamilton
62. “Necessity, especially in politics, often occasions false hopes, false reasonings, and a system of measures, correspondingly erroneous.”
— Alexander Hamilton
63. “The obscurity is more often in the passions and prejudices of the reasoner than in the subject.”
— Alexander Hamilton
64. “A fondness for power is implanted in most men, and it is natural to abuse it when acquired.”
— Alexander Hamilton
65. “When a government betrays the people by amassing too much power and becoming tyrannical, the people have no choice but to exercise their original right of self-defense – to fight the government.”
— Alexander Hamilton
66. “An over-scrupulous jealousy of danger to the rights of the people, which is more commonly the fault of the head than of the heart, will be represented as mere pretense and artifice, the stale bait for popularity at the expense of the public good.”
— Alexander Hamilton
67. “The local interest of a State ought in every case to give way to the interests of the Union. For when a sacrifice of one or the other is necessary, the former becomes only an apparent, partial interest, and should yield, on the principle that the smaller good ought never to oppose the greater good.”
— Alexander Hamilton
68. “Is it not time to awake from the deceitful dream of a golden age, and to adopt as a practical maxim for the direction of our political conduct, that we, as well as the other inhabitants of the globe, are yet remote from the happy empire of perfect wisdom and perfect virtue?”
— Alexander Hamilton
69. “If we incline too much to democracy, we shall soon shoot into a monarchy.”
— Alexander Hamilton
70. “As to Taxes, they are evidently inseparable from Government. It is impossible without them to pay the debts of the nation, to protect it from foreign danger, or to secure individuals from lawless violence and rapine.”
— Alexander Hamilton
71. “In all very numerous assemblies, of whatever character composed, passion never fails to wrest the sceptre from reason. Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob.”
— Alexander Hamilton
72. “That experience is the parent of wisdom is an adage the truth of which is recognized by the wisest as well as the simplest of mankind.”
— Alexander Hamilton
73. “Foreign influence is truly the Grecian horse to a republic. We cannot be too careful to exclude its influence.”
— Alexander Hamilton
74. “The prosperity of commerce is now perceived and acknowledged by all enlightened statesmen to be the most useful as well as the most productive source of national wealth, and has accordingly become a primary object of their political cares.”
— Alexander Hamilton
75. “The rights of neutrality will only be respected when they are defended by an adequate power. A nation, despicable by its weakness, forfeits even the privilege of being neutral.”
— Alexander Hamilton
76. “For my part, I sincerely esteem the Constitution, a system which without the finger of God, never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests.”
— Alexander Hamilton
77. “The truth is, after all the declamations we have heard, that the Constitution is itself, in every rational sense, and to every useful purpose, A BILL OF RIGHTS.”
— Alexander Hamilton
78. “After an unequivocal experience of the inefficacy of the subsisting federal government, you are called upon to deliberate on a new Constitution for the United States of America.”
— Alexander Hamilton
79. “If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no recourse left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defense which is paramount to all positive forms of government.”
— Alexander Hamilton
80. “Opinion, whether well or ill-founded, is the governing principle of human affairs.”
— Alexander Hamilton
81. “I have a tender reliance on the mercy of the Almighty, through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am a sinner. I look to Him for mercy; pray for me.”
— Alexander Hamilton
82. “Man is a reasoning rather than a reasonable animal.”
— Alexander Hamilton
83. “No character, however upright, is a match for constantly reiterated attacks, however false.”
— Alexander Hamilton
84. “In testimony of their Respect For The Patriot of incorruptible Integrity, The Soldier of approved Valour The Statesman of consummate Wisdom; Whose Talents and Virtues will be admired By Grateful Posterity Long after this Marble shall have mouldered into Dust.”
— Alexander Hamilton
85. “Responsibility, in order to be reasonable, must be limited to objects within the power of the responsible party, and in order to be effectual, must relate to operations of that power, of which a ready and proper judgment can be formed by the constituents.”
— Alexander Hamilton
86. “Money is, with propriety, considered as the vital principle of the body politic; as that which sustains its life and motion, and enables it to perform its most essential functions.”
— Alexander Hamilton
87. “Those who do not industrialize become hewers of wood and hawkers of water.”
— Alexander Hamilton
88. “Best of wives and best of women.”
— Alexander Hamilton
89. “In politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution.”
— Alexander Hamilton
90. “If we are in earnest about giving the Union energy and duration we must abandon the vain project of legislating upon the States in their collective capacities.”
— Alexander Hamilton
91. “The great leading objects of the federal government, in which revenue is concerned, are to maintain domestic peace, and provide for the common defense.”
— Alexander Hamilton
92. “If mankind were to resolve to agree in no institution of government, until every part of it had been adjusted to the most exact standard of perfection, society would soon become a general scene of anarchy, and the world a desert.”
— Alexander Hamilton
93. “To judge from the history of mankind, we shall be compelled to conclude, that the fiery and destructive passions of war, reign in the human breast, with much more powerful sway, than the mild and beneficent sentiments of peace.”
— Alexander Hamilton
94. “To my utter astonishment I saw an airship descending over my cow lot. It was occupied by six of the strangest beings I ever saw. They were jabbering together, but we could not understand a word they said…”
— Alexander Hamilton
95. “Men are rather reasoning than reasonable animals for the most part governed by the impulse of passion.”
— Alexander Hamilton
96. “Caution and investigation are a necessary armor against error and imposition.”
— Alexander Hamilton
97. “The natural cure for an ill-administration, in a popular or representative constitution, is a change of men.”
— Alexander Hamilton
98. “There are men who could neither be distressed nor won into a sacrifice of their duty; but this stern virtue is the growth of few soils: And in the main it will be found, that a power over a man’s support is a power over his will.”
— Alexander Hamilton
99. “The genius of the people will ill brook the inquisitive and preemptory spirit of excise laws.”
— Alexander Hamilton
100. “Though a wide ocean separates the United States from Europe, yet there are various considerations that warn us against an excess of confidence or security.”
— Alexander Hamilton
101. “It is a singular advantage of taxes on articles of consumption that they contain in their own nature a security against excess. They prescribe their own limit, which cannot be exceeded without defeating the end purposed – that is, an extension of the revenue.”
— Alexander Hamilton
102. “There can be no profit in the making or selling of things to be destroyed in war. Men may think that they have such profit, but in the end the profit will turn out to be a loss.”
— Alexander Hamilton
103. “Even to observe neutrality you must have a strong government.”
— Alexander Hamilton
104. “The attributes of sovereignty are now enjoyed by every state in the Union.”
— Alexander Hamilton
105. “Constitutions should consist only of general provisions; the reason is that they must necessarily be permanent, and that they cannot calculate for the possible change of things.”
— Alexander Hamilton
106. “The same state of the passions which fits the multitude, who have not a sufficient stock of reason and knowledge to guide them, for opposition to tyranny and oppression, very naturally leads them to a contempt and disregard of all authority.”
— Alexander Hamilton
107. “In this distribution of powers the wisdom of our constitution is manifested. It is the province and duty of the Executive to preserve to the Nation the blessings of peace. The Legislature alone can interrupt those blessings, by placing the Nation in a state of War.”
— Alexander Hamilton
108. “Every nation ought to have a right to provide for its own happiness.”
— Alexander Hamilton
109. “The system is the best that the present views and circumstances of the country will permit.”
— Alexander Hamilton
110. “And it proves, in the last place, that liberty can have nothing to fear from the judiciary alone, but would have everything to fear from its union with either of the other departments.”
— Alexander Hamilton
111. “Who talks most about freedom and equality? Is it not those who hold the bill of rights in one hand and a whip for affrighted slaves in the other?”
— Alexander Hamilton
112. “If there are such things as political axioms, the propriety of the judicial power of a government being co-extensive with its legislative, may be ranked among the number.”
— Alexander Hamilton
113. “The Christian Constitutional Society, its object is first: The support of the Christian religion. Second: The support of the United States.”
— Alexander Hamilton
114. “Now, mark my words. So long as we are a young and virtuous people, this instument will bind us together in mutual interests, mutual welfare, and mutual happiness. But when we become old and corrupt, it will bind no longer.”
— Alexander Hamilton
115. “There is no position which depends on clearer principles than that every act of a delegated authority, contrary to the commission under which it is exercised, is void. No legislative act, therefore, contrary to the Constitution, can be valid.”
— Alexander Hamilton
116. “I have carefully examined the evidences of the Christian religion, and if I was sitting as a juror upon its authenticity I would unhesitatingly give my verdict in its favor. I can prove its truth as clearly as any proposition ever submitted to the mind of man.”
— Alexander Hamilton
117. “In the general course of human nature, A power over a man’s subsistence amounts to a power over his will.”
— Alexander Hamilton
118. “No man in his senses can hesitate in choosing to be free, rather than a slave.”
— Alexander Hamilton
119. “The truth unquestionably is, that the only path to a subversion of the republican system of the Country is, by flattering the prejudices of the people, and exciting their jealousies and apprehensions, to throw affairs into confusion, and bring on civil commotion.”
— Alexander Hamilton
120. “When you assemble from your several counties in the Legislature, were every member to be guided only by the apparent interest of his county, government would be impracticable. There must be a perpetual accomodation and sacrifice of local advantage to general expediency.”
— Alexander Hamilton
121. “Every man the least conversant in Roman story, knows how often that republic was obliged to take refuge in the absolute power of a single man, under the formidable title of Dictator, as well against the intrigues of ambitious individuals who aspired to the tyranny, and the seditions of whole classes of the community whose conduct threatened the existence of all government, as against the invasions of external enemies who menaced the conquest and destruction of Rome.”
— Alexander Hamilton
122. “To judge from the conduct of the opposite parties, we shall be led to conclude that they will mutually hope to evince the justness of their opinions, and to increase the number of their converts by the loudness of their declamations and the bitterness of their invectives.”
— Alexander Hamilton
123. “The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.”
— Alexander Hamilton
124. “The voice of the people has been said to be the voice of God; and, however generally this maxim has been quoted and believed, it is not true to fact. The people are turbulent and changing, they seldom judge or determine right.”
— Alexander Hamilton
125. “Common interest may always be reckoned upon as the surest bond of sympathy.”
— Alexander Hamilton
126. “And it is long since I have learned to hold popular opinion of no value.”
— Alexander Hamilton
127. “In a free government, the security for civil rights must be the same as that for religious rights. It consists in the one case in the multiplicity of interests, and in the other in the multiplicity of sects.”
— Alexander Hamilton
128. “So numerous indeed and so powerful are the causes which serve to give a false bias to the judgment, that we, upon many occasions, see wise and good men on the wrong as well as on the right side of questions of the first magnitude to society. This circumstance, if duly attended to, would furnish a lesson of moderation to those who are ever so much persuaded of their being in the right in any controversy.”
— Alexander Hamilton
129. “Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known and less fixed?”
— Alexander Hamilton
130. “These powers ought to exist without limitation, because it is impossible to foresee or to define the extent and variety of national exigencies, and the correspondent extent and variety of the means which may be necessary to satisfy them.”
— Alexander Hamilton
131. “Government implies the power of making laws. It is essential to the idea of a law, that it be attended with a sanction; or, in other words, a penalty or punishment for disobedience.”
— Alexander Hamilton
132. “Self-preservation is the first principle of our nature.”
— Alexander Hamilton
133. “Among the most formidable of the obstacles which the new Constitution will have to encounter may readily be distinguished the obvious interest of a certain class of men in every State to resist all changes which may hazard a diminution of the power, emolument, and consequence of the offices they hold under the State establishments;.”
— Alexander Hamilton
134. “Its objects are CONTRACTS with foreign nations which have the force of law, but derive it from the obligations of good faith.”
— Alexander Hamilton
135. “Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike.”
— Alexander Hamilton
136. “The changes in the human condition are uncertain and frequent. Many, on whom fortune has bestowed her favours, may trace their family to a more unprosperous station; and many who are now in obscurity, may look back upon the affluence and exalted rank of their ancestors.”
— Alexander Hamilton
137. “To watch the progress of such endeavors is the office of a free press. To give us early alarm and put us on our guard against encroachments of power. This then is a right of utmost importance, one for which, instead of yielding it up, we ought rather to spill our blood.”
— Alexander Hamilton
138. “It is far more rational to suppose that the courts were designed to be an intermediate body between the people and the legislature, in order, among other things, to keep the latter within the limits assigned to their authority.”
— Alexander Hamilton
139. “A garden, you know, is a very usual refuge of a disappointed politician. Accordingly, I have purchased a few acres about nine miles from town, have built a house, and am cultivating a garden.”
— Alexander Hamilton
140. “Tyranny has perhaps oftener grown out of the assumptions of power, called for, on pressing exigencies, by a defective constitution, than out of the full exercise of the largest constitutional authorities.”
— Alexander Hamilton
141. “When human laws contradict or discountenance the means, which are necessary to preserve the essential rights of any society, they defeat the proper end of all laws, and so become null and void.”
— Alexander Hamilton
142. “An enlightened zeal for the energy and efficiency of government will be stigmatized, as the offspring of a temper fond of despotic power, and hostile to the principles of liberty.”
— Alexander Hamilton
143. “Hence, in a state of nature, no man had any moral power to deprive another of his life, limbs, property, or liberty; nor the least authority to command or exact obedience from him, except that which arose from the ties of consanguinity.”
— Alexander Hamilton
144. “To be more safe, they at length become willing to run the risk of being less free.”
— Alexander Hamilton
145. “This process of election affords a moral certainty that the office of President will seldom fall to the lot of any many who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.”
— Alexander Hamilton
146. “A LAW, by the very meaning of the term, includes supremacy. It is a rule which those to whom it is prescribed are bound to observe. This results from every political association.”
— Alexander Hamilton
147. “It is astonishing that so simple a truth should ever have had an adversary; and it is one among a multitude of proofs, how apt a spirit of ill-informed jealousy, or of too great abstraction and refinement is to lead men astray from the plainest paths of reason and conviction.”
— Alexander Hamilton
148. “By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.”
— Alexander Hamilton
149. “The circumstances that endanger the safety of nations are infinite, and for this reason no constitutional shackles can wisely be imposed on the power to which the care of it is committed.”
— Alexander Hamilton
150. “It is very extraordinary, if the head of the money department of a country, being unprincipled enough to sacrifice his trust and his integrity, could not have contrived objects of profit sufficiently large to have engaged the co-operation of men of far greater importance than Reynolds, and with whom there could have been due safety, and should have been driven to the necessity of unkennelling such a reptile to be the instrument of his cupidity.”
— Alexander Hamilton
151. “Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of man will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.”
— Alexander Hamilton
152. “I trust that the proposed Constitution afford a genuine specimen of representative government and republican government; and that it will answer, in an eminent degree, all the beneficial purposes of society.”
— Alexander Hamilton
153. “To attempt to enumerate the complicated variety of mischiefs in the whole system of the social economy, which proceed from a neglect of the maxims that uphold public credit, and justify the solicitude manifested by the House on this point, would be an improper intrusion on their time and patience.”
— Alexander Hamilton
154. “A habit of labor in the people is as essential to the health and rigor of their minds and bodies as it is conducive to the welfare of the state.”
— Alexander Hamilton
155. “Unless your government is respectable, foreigners will invade your rights; and to maintain tranquillity you must be respectable; even to observe neutrality you must have a strong government.”
— Alexander Hamilton
156. “Let us recollect that peace or war will not always be left to our option; that however moderate or unambitious we may be, we cannot count upon the moderation, or hope to extinguish the ambition of others.”
— Alexander Hamilton
157. “A dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people, than under the forbidding appearance of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of Government.”
— Alexander Hamilton
158. “The practice of arbitrary imprisonments have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.”
— Alexander Hamilton
159. “Let experience, the least fallible guide of human opinion, be appealed to for an answer to these inquiries.”
— Alexander Hamilton
160. “Happy will it be if our choice should be directed by a judicious estimate of our true interests, unperplexed and unbiased by considerations not connected with the public good. But this is a thing more ardently to be wished than seriously to be expected.”
— Alexander Hamilton
161. “It may safely be received as an axiom in our political system, that the state governments will in all possible contingencies afford complete security against invasions of the public liberty by the national authority.”
— Alexander Hamilton
162. “There are seasons in every country when noise and impudence pass current for worth; and in popular commotions especially, the clamors of interested and factious men are often mistaken for patriotism.”
— Alexander Hamilton
163. “The standard of good behavior for the continuance in office of the judicial magistracy is certainly one of the most valuable of the modern improvements in the practice of government.”
— Alexander Hamilton
164. “Every individual of the community at large has an equal right to the protection of government.”
— Alexander Hamilton
165. “By a steady adherence to the Union we may hope, erelong, to become the arbiter of Europe in America, and to be able to incline the balance of European competitions in this part of the world as our interest may dictate.”
— Alexander Hamilton
166. “There can be no time, no state of things, in which Credit is not essential to a Nation…”
— Alexander Hamilton
167. “It is a general principle of human nature, that a man will be interested in whatever he possesses, in proportion to the firmness or precariousness of the tenure by which he holds it…”
— Alexander Hamilton
168. “But as the plan of the convention aims only at a partial union or consolidation, the State governments would clearly retain all the rights of sovereignty which they before had, and which were not, by that act, EXCLUSIVELY delegated to the United States.”
— Alexander Hamilton
169. “I will venture to assert that no combination of designing men under heaven will be capable of making a government unpopular which is in its principles a wise and good one, and vigorous in its operations.”
— Alexander Hamilton
170. “And as the vicissitudes of Nations beget a perpetual tendency to the accumulation of debt, there ought to be in every government a perpetual, anxious, and unceasing effort to reduce that, which at any times exists, as fast as shall be practicable consistently with integrity and good faith.”
— Alexander Hamilton
171. “It is a just observation that the people commonly intend the Public Good. This often applies to their very errors. But their good sense would despise the adulator who should pretend they always reason right about the means of promoting it.”
— Alexander Hamilton
172. “Here, sir, the people govern; here they act by their immediate representatives.”
— Alexander Hamilton
173. “To cherish and stimulate the activity of the human mind, by multiplying the objects of enterprise, is not among the least considerable of the expedients, by which the wealth of a nation may be promoted.”
— Alexander Hamilton
174. “The propriety of a law, in a constitutional light, must always be determined by the nature of the powers upon which it is founded.”
— Alexander Hamilton
175. “The inhabitants of territories, often the theatre of war, are unavoidably subject to frequent infringements on their rights, which serve to weaken their sense of those rights; and by degrees, the people are brought to consider the soldiery not only as their protectors but as their superiors.”
— Alexander Hamilton
176. “When avarice takes the lead in a state, it is commonly the forerunner of its fall.”
— Alexander Hamilton
177. “In disquisitions of every kind there are certain primary truths, or first principles, upon which all subsequent reasoning must depend.”
— Alexander Hamilton
178. “As on the one hand, the necessity for borrowing in particular emergencies cannot be doubted, so on the other, it is equally evident that to be able to borrow upon good terms, it is essential that the credit of a nation should be well established.”
— Alexander Hamilton
179. “To look for a continuation in harmony between a number of independent unconnected sovereignties, situated in the same neighborhood, would be to disregard the uniform course of human events, and to set at defiance the accumulated experience of ages.”
— Alexander Hamilton
180. “The pains taken to preserve peace include a proportional responsibility that equal pains be taken to be prepared for war.”
— Alexander Hamilton
181. “Would they not fear that citizens not less tenacious than conscious of their rights would flock from the remotest extremes of their respective states to the places of election, to overthrow their tyrants, and to substitute men who would be disposed to avenge the violated majesty of the people?”
— Alexander Hamilton
182. “Take mankind as they are, and what are they governed by? Their passions.”
— Alexander Hamilton
183. “Happy will it be for ourselves, and most honorable for human nature, if we have wisdom and virtue enough to set so glorious an example to mankind!”
— Alexander Hamilton
184. “The true principle of government is this – make the system compleat in its structure; give a perfect proportion and balance to its parts; and the powers you give it will never affect your security.”
— Alexander Hamilton
185. “It is evident from the state of the country, from the habits of the people, from the experience we have had on the point itself, that it is impracticable to raise any very considerable sums by direct taxation.”
— Alexander Hamilton
186. “It was remarked yesterday that a numerous representation was necessary to obtain the confidence of the people. This is not generally true. The confidence of the people will easily be gained by a good administration. This is the true touchstone.”
— Alexander Hamilton
187. “When men, engaged in unjustifiable pursuits, are aware that obstructions may come from a quarter which bare apprehension of opposition from doing what they would with eagerness rush into if no such external impediments were to be feared.”
— Alexander Hamilton
188. “In the usual progress of things, the necessities of a nation in every stage of its existence will be found at least equal to its resources.”
— Alexander Hamilton
189. “I always feel how necessary you are to me. But when you are absent, I become still more sensible of it and look around in vain for that satisfaction which you alone can bestow.”
— Alexander Hamilton
190. “While the constitution continues to be read, and its principles known, the states, must, by every rational man, be considered as essential component parts of the union; and therefore the idea of sacrificing the former to the latter is totally inadmissible.”
— Alexander Hamilton
191. “A treaty cannot be made which alters the Constitution of the country, or which infringes and express exceptions to the power of the Constitution.”
— Alexander Hamilton
192. “There may be in every government a few choice spirits, who may act from more worthy motives. One great error is that we suppose mankind more honest than they are. Our prevailing passions are ambition and interest…”
— Alexander Hamilton
193. “It is in vain to hope to guard against events too mighty for human foresight or precaution, and it would be idle to object to a government because it could not perform impossibilities.”
— Alexander Hamilton
194. “States, like individuals, who observe their engagements, are respected and trusted: while the reverse is the fate of those who pursue an opposite conduct.”
— Alexander Hamilton
195. “Some reasonable term ought to be allowed to enable aliens to get rid of foreign and acquire American attachments; to learn the principles and imbibe the spirit of our government; and to admit of a probability at least, of their feeling a real interest in our affairs.”
— Alexander Hamilton
196. “The treaties of the United States, to have any force at all, must be considered as part of the law of the land.”
— Alexander Hamilton
197. “The laws of Congress are restricted to a certain sphere, and when they depart from this sphere, they are no longer supreme or binding.”
— Alexander Hamilton
198. “Men of factious tempers, of local prejudices, or of sinister designs, may, by intrigue, by corruption, or by other means, first obtain the suffrages, and then betray the interests, of the people.”
— Alexander Hamilton
199. “Here sir, the people govern.”
— Alexander Hamilton
200. “There is a contagion in example which few men have sufficient force of mind to resist.”
— Alexander Hamilton
