Top 250 Alexander Hamilton Quotes (2024 Update)
Page 4 of 6

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. “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

153. “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

154. “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

155. “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

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

— Alexander Hamilton

158. “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

159. “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

160. “The practice of arbitrary imprisonments have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.”

— Alexander Hamilton

161. “Every individual of the community at large has an equal right to the protection of government.”

— Alexander Hamilton

162. “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

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. “In disquisitions of every kind there are certain primary truths, or first principles, upon which all subsequent reasoning must depend.”

— 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. “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

169. “Here, sir, the people govern; here they act by their immediate representatives.”

— Alexander Hamilton

170. “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

171. “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

172. “Of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people, commencing demagogues and ending tyrants.”

— Alexander Hamilton

173. “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

174. “When avarice takes the lead in a state, it is commonly the forerunner of its fall.”

— Alexander Hamilton

175. “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

176. “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

177. “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

178. “The pains taken to preserve peace include a proportional responsibility that equal pains be taken to be prepared for war.”

— Alexander Hamilton

179. “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

180. “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

181. “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

182. “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

183. “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

184. “Take mankind as they are, and what are they governed by? Their passions.”

— Alexander Hamilton

185. “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

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. “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

188. “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

189. “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

190. “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

191. “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

192. “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

193. “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

194. “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

195. “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

196. “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

197. “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

198. “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

199. “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

200. “There is a contagion in example which few men have sufficient force of mind to resist.”

— Alexander Hamilton