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Alexander Hamilton

92 quotes

• “A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) first seen 1781 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter to Robert Morris (30 April 1781)

• “I feel the deepest affliction at the news we have just received at the loss of our dear and inestimable friend Laurens. His career of virtue is at end. How strangely are human affairs conducted, that so many excellent qualities could not ensure a more happy fate! The world will feel the loss of a man who has left few like him behind; and America, of a citizen whose heart realized that patriotism of which others only talk. I feel the loss of a friend whom I truly and most tenderly loved, and one of a very small number.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) first seen 1782 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter to Nathanael Greene (12 October 1782), as quoted in Sketches of the Life and Correspondence of Nathanael Greene, page 342

• “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.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) first seen 1788 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech in New York, urging ratification of the U.S. Constitution (21 June 1788)

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

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) first seen 1788 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Elliot's Debates, volume 2, p. 348. (Remarks on the U.S. House of Representatives, at the New York state convention on the adoption of the Federal Constitution, Poughkeepsie, New York July 27, 1788)

• “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.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) first seen 1788 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Elliot's Debates, volume 2, p. 364. (28 July 1788)

• “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 (1757–1804) first seen 1788 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Elliot's Debates, volume 1, p. 463. (29 July 1788)

• “Every power vested in a government is in its nature sovereign, and includes by force of the term a right to employ all the means requisite...to the attainment of the ends of such power.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) first seen 1791 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Opinion on the Constitutionality of the Bank (23 February 1791)

• “If the end be clearly comprehended within any of the specified powers, and if the measure have an obvious relation to that end, and is not forbidden by any particular provision of the Constitution, it may safely be deemed to come within the compass of the national authority.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) first seen 1791 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Opinion on the Constitutionality of the Bank (23 February 1791)

• “If it be asked, What is the most sacred duty and the greatest source of our security in a Republic? The answer would be, An inviolable respect for the Constitution and Laws — the first growing out of the last... A sacred respect for the constitutional law is the vital principle, the sustaining energy of a free government.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) first seen 1794 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Essay in the American Daily Advertiser (28 August 1794)

• “And it is long since I have learned to hold popular opinion of no value.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) first seen 1794 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter to Washington, 11 November 1794

• “The passions of a revolution are apt to hurry even good men into excesses.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) first seen 1795 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Essay (12 August 1795)

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

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) first seen 1797 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter to the Daily Advertiser (21 February 1797)

• “I have thought it my duty to exhibit things as they are, not as they ought to be.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) first seen 1782 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter to Robert Morris (13 August 1782)

• “Men are rather reasoning than reasonable animals, for the most part governed by the impulse of passion.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) first seen 1802 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter (16 April 1802)

• “A garden, you know, is a very usual refuge of a disappointed politician. Accordingly, I have purchased a few acres about nine miles from town, have built a house, and am cultivating a garden.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) first seen 1802 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter to Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (29 December 1802)

• “I have resolved, if our interview is conducted in the usual manner, and it pleases God to give me the opportunity, to reserve and throw away my first fire, and I have thoughts even of reserving my second fire.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) first seen 1804 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter written the night before his duel with Aaron Burr (10 July 1804)

• “It is a maxim deeply ingrafted in that dark system, that no character, however upright, is a match for constantly reiterated attacks, however false.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) first seen 1797 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Observations on Certain Documents, also known as The Reynolds Pamphlet (1797)

• “We must make the best of those ills which cannot be avoided.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: As quoted in The Home Book of Quotations, Classical and Modern (1958)

  Also quoted by: Clarence Day (misattributed)

• “Every day proves to me more and more that this American world was not made for me.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) first seen 1802 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter to Gouverneur Morris (27 January 1802)

• “When we read in the valuable production of those great Oriental scholars ... those of a Jones, a Wilkings, a Colebrooke, or a Halhed, - we uniformly discover in the Hindus a nation, whose polished manners are the result of a mild disposition and an extensive benevolence.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: in Danino, Michel and Nahar, Sujata The inl'asioll that never was / Song of humanity .1st ed. Delhi: Mother's Institute of Research & Mira Aditi, Mysore, India, 1996.p. 17 quoted in Londhe, S. (2008). A tribute to Hindu…

• “If they break this Union, they will break my heart.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) first seen 1804 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Last words before succumbing to his injuries from his duel with Aaron Burr (12 July 1804)

• “The right of parliament to legislate for us cannot be accounted for upon any reasonable grounds. The constitution of Great Britain is very properly called a limited monarchy, the people having reserved to themselves a share in the legislature, as a check upon the regal authority, to prevent its degenerating into despotism and tyranny. The very aim and intention of the democratical part, or the house of commons, is to secure the rights of the people. Its very being depends upon those rights. Its whole power is derived from them, and must be terminated by them.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “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 or obscured by mortal power.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

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

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “We are now forming a republican government. Real liberty is neither found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments. Those who mean to form a solid republican government, ought to proceed to the confinges of another government. As long as offices are open to all men, and no constitutional rank is established, it is pure republicanism. But if we incline too much to democracy, we shall soon shoot into a monarchy.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) first seen 1787 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: 26 June 1787 per page 105 of "The Debates, Resolutions, and Other Proceedings, in Convention, on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution: Supplementary to the state Conventions" by Johnathan Elliot, published 1830

• “As long as offices are open to all men and no constitutional rank is established, it is pure republicanism.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “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.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “To look for a continuation of harmony between a number of independent, unconnected sovereignties 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 (1757–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The rights of neutrality will only be respected, when they are defended by an adequate power. A nation, despicable by its weakness, forfeits even the privilege of being neutral.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Let Americans disdain to be the instruments of European greatness! Let the thirteen States, bound together in a strict and indissoluble Union, concur in erecting one great American system, superior to the control of all transatlantic force or influence, and able to dictate the terms of the connection between the old and the new world!”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Government implies the power of making laws. It is essential to the idea of a law, that it be attended with a sanction; or, in other words, a penalty or punishment for disobedience.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “When the sword is once drawn, the passions of men observe no bounds of moderation. The suggestions of wounded pride, the instigations of irritated resentment, would be apt to carry the States against which the arms of the Union were exerted, to any extremes necessary to avenge the affront or to avoid the disgrace of submission. The first war of this kind would probably terminate in a dissolution of the Union.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The fabric of American Empire ought to rest on the solid basis of THE CONSENT OF THE PEOPLE. The streams of National power ought to flow immediately from that pure original fountain of all legitimate authority.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “If circumstances should at any time oblige the government to form an army of any magnitude that army can never be formidable to the liberties of the people while there is a large body of citizens, little, if at all, inferior to them in discipline and the use of arms, who stand ready to defend their own rights and those of their fellow-citizens. This appears to me the only substitute that can be devised for a standing army, and the best possible security against it, if it should exist.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “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 (1757–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “If the federal government should overpass the just bounds of its authority and make a tyrannical use of its powers, the people, whose creature it is, must appeal to the standard they have formed, and take such measures to redress the injury done to the Constitution as the exigency may suggest and prudence justify.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “If a number of political societies enter into a larger political society, the laws which the latter may enact, pursuant to the powers intrusted to it by its constitution, must necessarily be supreme over those societies and the individuals of whom they are composed.... But it will not follow from this doctrine that acts of the larger society which are not pursuant to its constitutional powers, but which are invasions of the residuary authorities of the smaller societies, will become the supreme law of the land. These will be merely acts of usurpation, and will deserve to be treated as such.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “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 (1757–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The President, and government, will only control the militia when a part of them is in the actual service of the federal government, else, they are independent and not under the command of the president or the government. The states would control the militia, only when called out into the service of the state, and then the governor would be commander in chief where enumerated in the respective state constitution.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “A council to a magistrate, who is himself responsible for what he does, are generally nothing better than a clog upon his good intentions, are often the instruments and accomplices of his bad and are almost always a cloak to his faults.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) first seen 1788 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Federalist No. 70 (18 March 1788)

• “When occasions present themselves, in which the interests of the people are at variance with their inclinations, it is the duty of the persons whom they have appointed to be the guardians of those interests, to withstand the temporary delusion, in order to give them time and opportunity for more cool and sedate reflection.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The Courts must declare the sense of the law; and if they should be disposed to exercise will instead of judgement; the consequences would be the substitution of their pleasure for that of the legislative body.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “There are men who could neither be distressed nor won into a sacrifice of their duty; but this stern virtue is the growth of few soils; and in the main it will be found that a power over a man's support is a power over his will. If it were necessary to confirm so plain a truth by facts, examples would not be wanting, even in this country, of the intimidation or seduction of the Executive by the terrors or allurements of the pecuniary arrangements of the legislative body.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “An avaricious man might be tempted to betray the interests of the State to the acquisition of wealth. An ambitious man might make his own aggrandizement, by the aid of a foreign power, the price of his treachery to his constituents. The history of human conduct does not warrant that exalted opinion of human virtue, which would make it wise in a Nation to commit interests of so delicate and momentous a kind, as those which concern its intercourse with the rest of the world, to the sole disposal of a Magistrate created and circumstanced as would be a President of the United States.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “In the general course of human nature, a power over a man's subsistence amounts to a power over his will.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I go further, and affirm that bills of rights, in the sense and to the extent in which they are contended for, are not only unnecessary in the proposed Constitution, but would even be dangerous. They would contain various exceptions to powers not granted; and, on this very account, would afford a colorable pretext to claim more than were granted. For why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do?”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The creation of crimes after the commission of the fact, or, in other words, the subjecting of men to punishment for things which, when they were done, were breaches of no law, and the practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The system, though it may not be perfect in every part, is, upon the whole, a good one; is the best that the present views and circumstances of the country will permit; and is such an one as promises every species of security which a reasonable people can desire.”

  Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

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