"It has been observed that a pure democracy……" — Alexander Hamilton
"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."
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Alexander Hamilton
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352 Quotes by Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton has 352 quotes on this site.
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Some reasonable term ought to be allowed to enable aliens to get rid of foreign and acquire American attachments; to…
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Let us recollect that peace or war will not always be left to our option; that however moderate or unambitious…
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A fondness for power is implanted in most men, and it is natural to abuse it when acquired.
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...great Ambition, unchecked by principle, or the love of Glory, is an unruly Tyrant...
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There may be in every government a few choice spirits, who may act from more worthy motives. One great error…
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Ambition without principle never was long under the guidance of good sense.
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It is a general principle of human nature, that a man will be interested in whatever he possesses, in proportion…
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Men are rather reasoning than reasonable animals for the most part governed by the impulse of passion.
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Take mankind as they are, and what are they governed by? Their passions.
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The passions of a revolution are apt to hurry even good men into excesses.
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Has it not. . . invariably been found that momentary passions, and immediate interests, have a more active and imperious…
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The same state of the passions which fits the multitude, who have not a sufficient stock of reason and knowledge…
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More Ancient Quotes
This quote is filed under Ancient Quotes,
one of 1,413 quotes in that category. Here are a few more:
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No cause is left but the most ancient of all, the one, in fact, that from the beginning of our…
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Myths can't be translated as they did in their ancient soil. We can only find our own meaning in our…
— Margaret Atwood
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The same thing which is now called Christian religion existed among the ancients. They have begun to call 'Christian' the…
— Saint Augustine
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Because we can't escape our ancient hunger to live close to nature, we encircle the house with lawns and gardens,…
— Diane Ackerman
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In marriage there are no manners to keep up, and beneath the wildest accusations no real criticism. Each is familiar…
— Enid Bagnold
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Beauty is the disinterested one, without which the ancient world refused to understand itself, a word which both imperceptibly and…
— Hans Urs von Balthasar
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The number of stressors has multiplied exponentially: traffic, money, success, work/life balance, the economy, the environment, parenting, family conflict, relationships,…
— Andrew Bernstein
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In English we must use adjectives to distinguish the different kinds of love for which the ancients had distinct names.
— Mortimer Adler
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The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most pleasing responsibility. To…
— Wendell Berry
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My own life in India, since I came to it in 1893 to make it my home, has been devoted…
— Annie Besant
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Britons are good, though often brutal, colonists where they come into relations with entirely uncivilized tribes whose past is so…
— Annie Besant
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Academe, n.: An ancient school where morality and philosophy were taught. Academy, n.: A modern school where football is taught.
— Ambrose Bierce
See all 1,413 Ancient Quotes »