Alexander Hamilton Quotes

People sometimes attribute my success to my genius; all the genius I know anything about is hard work.

Give all the power to the many, they will oppress the few. Give all the power to the few, they will oppress the many.

When a government betrays the people by amassing too much power and becoming tyrannical, the people have no choice but to exercise their original right of self-defense — to fight the government.

One great error is that we suppose mankind more honest than they are.

I think the first duty of society is justice.

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

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.

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

Foreign influence is truly the Grecian horse to a republic. We cannot be too careful to exclude its influence.

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

There are seasons in every country when noise and impudence pass current for worth; and in popular commotions especially, the clamors of interested and factious men are often mistaken for patriotism.

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

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

This process of election affords a moral certainty that the office of President will seldom fall to the lot of any many who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.

[H]owever weak our country may be, I hope we shall never sacrifice our liberties.

A sacred respect for the constitutional law is the vital principle, the sustaining energy of a free government.

Ambition without principle never was long under the guidance of good sense.

It is the Press which has corrupted our political morals - and it is to the Press we must look for the means of our political regeneration.

I would die to preserve the law upon a solid foundation; but take away liberty, and the foundation is destroyed.

Remember civil and religious liberty always go together: if the foundation of the one be sapped, the other will fall of course.

Learn to think continentally.

The honor of a nation is its life. Deliberately to abandon it is to commit an act of political suicide.

The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge right or make good decision.

We are now forming a republican government. Real liberty is never found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments.

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

As riches increase and accumulate in few hands . . . the tendency of things will be to depart from the republican standard.

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

Every nation ought to have a right to provide for its own happiness.

No character, however upright, is a match for constantly reiterated attacks, however false.

Hard words are very rarely useful. Real firmness is good for every thing. Strut is good for nothing.

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

. . . [The Judicial Branch] may truly be said to have neither FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgment; and must ultimately depend upon the aid of the executive arm even for the efficacy of its judgments.

Nothing could be more ill-judged than that intolerant spirit which has, at all times, characterized political parties.

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.

The love for our native land strengthens our individual and national character.

A fondness for power is implanted in most men, and it is natural to abuse it when acquired.

Every individual of the community at large has an equal right to the protection of government.

Of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people, commencing demagogues and ending tyrants.

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

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

The art of reading is to skip judiciously.

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

What is the most sacred duty and the greatest source of our security in a Republic? An inviolable respect for the Constitution and Laws.

Americans rouse - be unanimous, be virtuous, be firm, exert your courage, trust in Heaven, and nobly defy the enemies both of God and man!

Happy will it be for ourselves, and most honorable for human nature, if we have wisdom and virtue enough to set so glorious an example to mankind!

You should not have taken advantage of my sensibility to steal into my affections without my consent.

For my part, I sincerely esteem the Constitution, a system which without the finger of God, never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests.

The inquiry constantly is what will please, not what will benefit the people. In such a government there can be nothing but temporary expedient, fickleness, and folly.

Experience is the oracle of truth; and where its responses are unequivocal, they ought to be conclusive and sacred.

Here sir, the people govern.