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

Safety from external danger is the most powerful director of national conduct. Even the ardent love of liberty will, after a time, give way to its dictates.

Safety from external danger is the most powerful director of national conduct.

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

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

There are approximately 1,010,300 words in the English language, but I could never string enough words together to properly express how much I want to hit you with a chair. (Alexander Hamilton, to Thomas Jefferson)

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

A strong body makes the mind strong, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise, and independence to the mind.

If we must have an enemy at the head of government, let it be one whom we can oppose, and for whom we are not responsible.

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.

Men of factious tempers, of local prejudices, or of sinister designs, may, by intrigue, by corruption, or by other means, first obtain the suffrages, and then betray the interests, of the people.

Happy it is when the interest which the government has in the preservation of its own power, coincides with a proper distribution of the public burthens, and tends to guard the least wealthy part of the community from oppression!

Happy will it be if our choice should be directed by a judicious estimate of our true interests, unperplexed and unbiased by considerations not connected with the public good. But this is a thing more ardently to be wished than seriously to be expected.

Real liberty is neither found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments.

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

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

An enlightened zeal for the energy and efficiency of government will be stigmatized, as the offspring of a temper fond of despotic power, and hostile to the principles of liberty.

I’m human, I’m not perfect. I make mistakes all the time, but I guess my job is to keep those mistakes to myself, which I’m already fine doing and just try to be the best I can be for those kids.

If there is anything that links the human to the divine, it is the courage to stand by a principle when everybody else rejects it.

He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it the second time.

People will wish you all the success in the world and then hate you when you get it.

You have qualities which I had not before supposed to exist in such a degree in any human creature. You have some touches of the angel in you.

Every human being must be viewed according to what it is good for. For not one of us, no, not one, is perfect. And were we to love none who had imperfection, this world would be a desert for our love.

I think the human race doesn’t have a future if we don’t go into space. We need to expand our horizons beyond planet Earth if we are to have a long-term future.

If you’re in the luckiest one percent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 percent.