Alexander Hamilton Quotes

#1. 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

#2. All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. the first are the rich and well-born, the other the mass of the people

Alexander Hamilton

#3. The obscurity is more often in the passions and prejudices of the reasoner than in the subject.

Alexander Hamilton

#4. 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

#5. 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.

Alexander Hamilton

#6. 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

#7. Jurors should acquit, even against the judge's instruction ... if exercising their judgment with discretion and honesty they have a clear conviction the charge of the court is wrong.

Alexander Hamilton

#8. 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

#9. In proportion as I discover the worthlessness of other pursuits, the value of my Eliza and of domestic happiness rises in my estimation.

Alexander Hamilton

#10. 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

#11. Experience teaches, that men are often so much governed by what they are accustomed to see and practice, that the simplest and most obvious improvements ... are adopted with hesitation, reluctance, and slow gradations.

Alexander Hamilton

#12. 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

#13. The laws of certain states ... give an ownership in the service of Negroes as personal property ... But being men, by the laws of God and nature, they were capable of acquiring liberty - and when the captor in war ... thought fit to give them liberty, the gift was not only valid, but irrevocable.

Alexander Hamilton

#14. 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

#15. The variety of more minute interests, which will necessarily fall under the superintendence of the local administrations ... cannot be particularized without involving a detail too tedious and uninteresting to compensate for the instruction it might afford.

Alexander Hamilton

#16. 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

#17. The militia is a voluntary force not associated or under the control of the States except when called out; [ when called into actual service] a permanent or long standing force would be entirely different in make-up and call.

Alexander Hamilton

#18. Wherever indeed a right of property is infringed for the general good, if the nature of the case admits of compensation, it ought to be made; but if compensation be impracticable, that impracticability ought to be an obstacle to a clearly essential reform.

Alexander Hamilton

#19. As riches increase and accumulate in few hands ... the tendency of things will be to depart from the republican standard.

Alexander Hamilton

#20. Ambition without principle never was long under the guidance of good sense.

Alexander Hamilton

#21. Necessity, especially in politics, often occasions false hopes, false reasonings, and a system of measures, correspondingly erroneous.

Alexander Hamilton

#22. The genius of the people will ill brook the inquisitive and preemptory spirit of excise laws.

Alexander Hamilton

#23. The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge right or make good decision.

Alexander Hamilton

#24. A strong body makes the mind strong ... I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise, and independence to the mind.

Alexander Hamilton

#25. They are not rules prescribed by the sovereign to the subject, but agreements between sovereign and sovereign.

Alexander Hamilton

#26. The vigour of government is essential to the security of liberty ... 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

#27. War, like most other things, is a science to be acquired and perfected by diligence, by perserverance, by time, and by practice.

Alexander Hamilton

#28. 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

#29. 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

#30. The practice of arbitrary imprisonments have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.

Alexander Hamilton

#31. Can any reasonable man be well disposed toward a government which makes war and carnage the only means of supporting itself?

Alexander Hamilton

#32. Caution and investigation are a necessary armor against error and imposition.

Alexander Hamilton

#33. 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

#34. How can you trust people who are poor and own no property? ... Inequality of property will exist as long as liberty exists.

Alexander Hamilton

#35. [Imeachable conduct is] misconduct by public men, or, in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust.

Alexander Hamilton

#36. 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

#37. 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

#38. I never expect a perfect work from an imperfect man.

Alexander Hamilton

#39. The awful discretion, which a court of impeachments must necessarily have, to doom to honor or to infamy the most confidential and the most distinguished characters of the community, forbids the commitment of the trust to a small number of persons.

Alexander Hamilton

#40. If we must have an enemy at the head of government, let it be one whom we can oppose, and for whom we are not responsible.

Alexander Hamilton

#41. [I]n framing a Government for a nation we ought, in those provisions which are designed to be permanent, to calculate not on temporary, but on permanent causes of expence.

Alexander Hamilton

#42. 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

#43. Every individual of the community at large has an equal right to the protection of government.

Alexander Hamilton

#44. [T]hough individual oppression may now and then proceed fro the courts of justice, the general liberty of the people can never be endangered from that quarter ...

Alexander Hamilton

#45. The inquiry constantly is what will please, not what will benefit the people. In such a government there can be nothing but temporary expedient, fickleness, and folly.

Alexander Hamilton

#46. It's not tyranny we desire; it's a just, limited, federal government.

Alexander Hamilton

#47. The civil jury is a valuable safeguard to liberty.

Alexander Hamilton

#48. The pains taken to preserve peace include a proportional responsibility that equal pains be taken to be prepared for war.

Alexander Hamilton

#49. 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

#50. Effective resistance to usurpers is possible only provided the citizens understand their rights and are disposed to defend them.

Alexander Hamilton

#51. Every power vested in a government is in its nature sovereign, and includes by force of the term a right to employ all the means requisite ... to the attainment of the ends of such power.

Alexander Hamilton

#52. It is one thing to be subordinate to the laws, and another [for the Executive] to be dependent on the legislative body. The first comports with, the last violates, the fundamental principles of good government; and, whatever may be the forms of the Constitution, unites all power in the same hands.

Alexander Hamilton

#53. Here, sir, the people govern; here they act by their immediate representatives.

Alexander Hamilton

#54. For 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. And

Alexander Hamilton

#55. 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

#56. Let experience, the least fallible guide of human opinion, be appealed to for an answer to these inquiries.

Alexander Hamilton

#57. The attributes of sovereignty are now enjoyed by every state in the Union.

Alexander Hamilton

#58. These are not vague inferences ... but they are solid conclusions drawn from the natural and necessary progress of human affairs.

Alexander Hamilton

#59. Remember civil and religious liberty always go together: if the foundation of the one be sapped, the other will fall of course.

Alexander Hamilton

#60. The scheme of separate confederacies, which will always multiply the chances of ambition, will be a never failing bait to all such influential characters in the State administrations as are capable of preferring their own emolument and advancement to the public weal.

Alexander Hamilton

#61. Those who have a tolerable knowledge of human nature will not stand in need of such lights.

Alexander Hamilton

#62. Nothing is more natural to men in office, than to look with peculiar deference towards that authority to which they owe their official existence.

Alexander Hamilton

#63. 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

#64. 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

#65. There can be no limitation of that authority which is to provide for the defense and protection of the community in any matter essential to the formation, direction, or support of the NATIONAL FORCES.

Alexander Hamilton

#66. A fondness for power is implanted in most men, and it is natural to abuse it when acquired.

Alexander Hamilton

#67. Power over a man's subsistence is power over his will.

Alexander Hamilton

#68. [T]he present Constitution is the standard to which we are to cling. Under its banners, bona fide must we combat our political foes - rejecting all changes but through the channel itself provides for amendments.

Alexander Hamilton

#69. Every nation ought to have a right to provide for its own happiness.

Alexander Hamilton

#70. 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

#71. 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

#72. 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

#73. 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

#74. 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

#75. An avaricious man might be tempted to betray the interests of the state for the acquisition of wealth.
No. 75

Alexander Hamilton

#76. Best of wives and best of women.

Alexander Hamilton

#77. Were it not that it might require too long a discussion, it would not be difficult to demonstrate that a large and well-organized republic can scarcely lose its liberty from any other cause than that of anarchy, to which a contempt of the laws is the high-road.

Alexander Hamilton

#78. For it is a truth, which the experience of all ages has attested, that the people are commonly most in danger when the means of insuring their rights are in the possession of those of whom they entertain the least suspicion.

Alexander Hamilton

#79. To answer the purpose of the adversaries of the Constitution, they ought to prove, not merely that particular provisions in it are not the best, which might have been imagined; but that the plan upon the whole is bad and pernicious.

Alexander Hamilton

#80. Nothing could be more ill-judged than that intolerant spirit which has, at all times, characterized political parties.

Alexander Hamilton

#81. 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

#82. 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

#83. Our great error is that we suppose mankind to be more honest than they are.

Alexander Hamilton

#84. A powerful, victorious ally is yet another name for master.

Alexander Hamilton

#85. This power ought to be coextensive with all the possible combinations of such circumstances; and ought to be under the direction of the same councils which are appointed to preside over the common defense.

Alexander Hamilton

#86. Here sir, the people govern.

Alexander Hamilton

#87. 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 Divinity itself, and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.

Alexander Hamilton

#88. 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

#89. Little more can reasonably be aimed at with respect to the people at large than to have them properly armed.

Alexander Hamilton

#90. 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

#91. If government is in the hands of the few, they will tyrannize the many; if in the hands of the many, they will tyrannize over the few. It ought to be in the hands of both, and be separated ... they will need a mutual check. This check is a monarch.

Alexander Hamilton

#92. If the sword of oppression be permitted to lop off one limb without opposition, reiterated strokes will soon dismember the whole body.

Alexander Hamilton

#93. Opinion, whether well or ill-founded, is the governing principle of human affairs

Alexander Hamilton

#94. 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

#95. [W]ar is a question, under our constitution, not of Executive, but of Legislative cognizance. It belongs to Congress to say whether the Nation shall of choice dismiss the olive branch and unfurl the banners of War.

Alexander Hamilton

#96. 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

#97. This [a state militia system] appears to me the only substitute that can be devised for a standing army, and the best possible security against it, if it should exist.

Alexander Hamilton

#98. 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

#99. 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

#100. People sometimes attribute my success to my genius; all the genius I know anything about is hard work.

Alexander Hamilton