Alexander Hamilton Quotes

353 quotes in 3953 categories

• 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…
• 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…
• A fondness for power is implanted in most men, and it is natural to abuse it when acquired.
• ...great Ambition, unchecked by principle, or the love of Glory, is an unruly Tyrant...
• 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…
• Ambition without principle never was long under the guidance of good sense.
• 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…
• Men are rather reasoning than reasonable animals for the most part governed by the impulse of passion.
• Take mankind as they are, and what are they governed by? Their passions.
• The passions of a revolution are apt to hurry even good men into excesses.
• Has it not. . . invariably been found that momentary passions, and immediate interests, have a more active and imperious control over human conduct than…
• The same state of the passions which fits the multitude, who have not a sufficient stock of reason and knowledge to guide them, for opposition…
• Take mankind in general, they are vicious-their passions may be operated upon.
• A fondness for power is implanted in most men, and it is natural to abuse it when acquired. This maxim, drawn from the experience of…
• 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…
• Men are rather reasoning than reasonable animals for the most part governed by the impulse of passion. This is a truth well understood by our…
• In all general questions which become the subjects of discussion, there are always some truths mixed with falsehoods. I confess, there is danger where men…
• I would die to preserve the law upon a solid foundation; but take away liberty, and the foundation is destroyed.
• We are now forming a republican government. Real liberty is never found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments.
• 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,…

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