Top 250 Alexander Hamilton Quotes (2025 Update)

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

Featured in: Quotes on Liberty

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. “Ambition without principle never was long under the guidance of good sense.”

— Alexander Hamilton

10. “When the sword is once drawn, the passions of men observe no bounds of moderation.”

— Alexander Hamilton

11. “The art of reading is to skip judiciously.”

— Alexander Hamilton

Featured in: Reading Quotes

12. “Divide et impera must be the motto of every nation that either hates or fears us.”

— Alexander Hamilton

13. “A promise must never be broken.”

— Alexander Hamilton

14. “Our countrymen have all the folly of the ass and all the passiveness of the sheep.”

— Alexander Hamilton

15. “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

16. “It’s not tyranny we desire; it’s a just, limited, federal government.”

— Alexander Hamilton

17. “There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism.”

— Alexander Hamilton

18. “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

19. “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

20. “Experience is the oracle of truth; and where its responses are unequivocal, they ought to be conclusive and sacred.”

— 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. “We must make the best of those ills which cannot be avoided.”

— Alexander Hamilton

26. “The love for our native land strengthens our individual and national character.”

— Alexander Hamilton

27. “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

28. “The masses are asses.”

— Alexander Hamilton

29. “A powerful, victorious ally is yet another name for master.”

— Alexander Hamilton

30. “We are attempting, by this Constitution, to abolish factions, and to unite all parties for the general welfare.”

— Alexander Hamilton

31. “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

32. “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

33. “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

34. “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

35. “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

36. “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

37. “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

38. “Laws are a dead letter without courts to expound and define their true meaning and operation.”

— Alexander Hamilton

39. “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

40. “The civil jury is a valuable safeguard to liberty.”

— Alexander Hamilton

41. “Nobody expects to trust his body overmuch after the age of fifty.”

— Alexander Hamilton

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

— Alexander Hamilton

43. “Industry is increased, commodities are multiplied, agriculture and manufacturers flourish: and herein consists the true wealth and prosperity of a state.”

— Alexander Hamilton

44. “The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge right or make good decision.”

— Alexander Hamilton

45. “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

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

— Alexander Hamilton

47. “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

48. “You should not have taken advantage of my sensibility to steal into my affections without my consent.”

— Alexander Hamilton

49. “The passions of a revolution are apt to hurry even good men into excesses.”

— 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