Alexander Hamilton

Self-preservation is the first principle of our nature.

— Alexander Hamilton

“I never expect a perfect work from an imperfect man.”

— Alexander Hamilton

“Men are reasoning rather than reasonable animals.”

— Alexander Hamilton

The art of reading is to skip judiciously.

— Alexander Hamilton

Learn to think continentally.

— Alexander Hamilton

The honor of a nation is its life.

— Alexander Hamilton

Man is a reasoning rather than a reasonable animal.

— Alexander Hamilton

The first duty of society is justice.

— Alexander Hamilton

Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known and less…

— Alexander Hamilton

“ Real firmness is good for every thing— Strut is good for nothing.”

— Alexander Hamilton

The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.

— Alexander Hamilton

It is of the nature of war to increase the executive at the expense of the legislative authority.

— Alexander Hamilton

Those who do not industrialize become hewers of wood and hawkers of water

— Alexander Hamilton

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

— Alexander Hamilton

The treaties of the United States, to have any force at all, must be considered as part of the law of the…

— Alexander Hamilton

The natural cure for an ill-administration, in a popular or representative constitution, is a change of men.

— Alexander Hamilton

The circumstances that endanger the safety of nations are infinite, and for this reason no constitutional shackles can wisely be imposed on…

— Alexander Hamilton

As to Taxes, they are evidently inseparable from Government. It is impossible without them to pay the debts of the nation, to…

— Alexander Hamilton

If the exercise of power of internal taxation by the Union should be discovered on experiment to be really inconvenient, the federal…

— Alexander Hamilton

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

— Alexander Hamilton

The desire of reward is one of the strongest incentives of human conduct; ... the best security for the fidelity of mankind…

— Alexander Hamilton

This process of election affords a moral certainty that the office of President will seldom fall to the lot of any many…

— Alexander Hamilton

The idea of restraining the legislative authority, in the means of providing for the national defense, is one of those refinements which…

— Alexander Hamilton

There may be in every government a few choice spirits, who may act from more worthy motives. One great error is that…

— Alexander Hamilton

The prosperity of commerce is now perceived and acknowledged by all enlightened statesmen to be the most useful as well as the…

— Alexander Hamilton

Good and wise men, in all ages, have embraced a very dissimilar theory. They have supposed that the deity, from the relations…

— Alexander Hamilton

The history of human conduct does not warrant that exalted opinion of human virtue which would make it wise in a nation…

— Alexander Hamilton

The President, and government, will only control the militia when a part of them is in the actual service of the federal…

— Alexander Hamilton

I confess I am at a loss to discover what temptation the persons entrusted with the administration of the general government could…

— Alexander Hamilton

It may be laid down as a general rule, that their confidence in and obedience to a government, will be commonly proportioned…

— Alexander Hamilton

All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first are the rich and well born, the other the mass…

— Alexander Hamilton

Manufacturing establishments not only occasion a positive augmentation of the produce and revenue of the society . . . they contribute essentially…

— Alexander Hamilton

Safety from external danger is the most powerful director of national conduct. Even the ardent love of liberty will, after a time,…

— Alexander Hamilton

Man is very much a creature of habit. A thing that rarely strikes his senses will generally have but little influence upon…

— Alexander Hamilton

I should esteem it the extreme of imprudence to prolong the precarious state of our national affairs, and to expose the Union…

— Alexander Hamilton

“To judge from the conduct of the opposite parties, we shall be led to conclude that they will mutually hope to evince…

— Alexander Hamilton

To cherish and stimulate the activity of the human mind, by multiplying the objects of enterprise, is not among the least considerable…

— Alexander Hamilton

Good constitutions are formed upon a comparison of the liberty of the individual with the strength of government: If the tone of…

— Alexander Hamilton

“A dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people than under the forbidden…

— Alexander Hamilton

Passive commerce . . . should thus . . . [compel us] to content ourselves with the first price of our commodities,…

— Alexander Hamilton