Quotes by Alexander Hamilton

Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.

A well adjusted person is one who makes the same mistake twice without getting nervous.

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.

Even to observe neutrality you must have a strong government.

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men the great difficulty lies in this: You must first enable the government to control the governed, and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.

It is the advertiser who provides the paper for the subscriber. It is not to be disputed, that the publisher of a newspaper in this country, without a very exhaustive advertising support, would receive less reward for his labor than the humblest mechanic.

Learn to think continentally.

Man is a reasoning rather than a reasonable animal.

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.

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

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

Real firmness is good for anything; strut is good for nothing.

Such a wife as I want... must be young, handsome I lay most stress upon a good shape, sensible a little learning will do, well-bread, chaste, and tender. As to religion, a moderate stock will satisfy me. She must believe in God and hate a saint.

The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right. Give therefore to the first class a distinct permanent share in the government... Can a democratic assembly who annually revolve in the mass of the people be supposed steadily to pursue the public good?

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.

Those who do not industrialize become hewers of wood and haulers of water.

A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one.

Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit. In a society under the forms of which the stronger faction can readily unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as truly be said to reign as in a state of nature, where the weaker individual is not secured against the violence of the stronger; and as, in the latter state, even the individuals are prompted, by the uncertainty of their condition, to submit to a government which may protect the weak as well as themselves; so, in the former state, will the more powerful factions or parties be gradually induced, by a like motive to wish for a government which will protect all parties, the weaker as well as the more powerful.

When men exercise their reason coolly and freely on a variety of distinct questions, they inevitably fall into different opinions on some of them. When they are governed by a common passion, their opinions, if they are to be called, will be the same.

It has been observed that a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved that no position is more false than this. The ancient democracies in which the people themselves deliberated never possessed one good feature of government. Their very character was tyranny; their figure deformity.

Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of man will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.

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

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

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.

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

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.

I think the first duty of society is justice.

I never expect to see a perfect work from an imperfect man.