“Have we not already seen enough of the fallacy and extravagance of those idle theories which have amused us with promises of an exemption from the imperfections, weaknesses and evils incident to society in every shape?”

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.

Vigor of government is essential to the security of liberty.

The militia is a voluntary force not associated or under the control of the States except when called out; a permanent or long-standing force would be entirely different in make-up and call.

Those who stand for nothing fall for everything.

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

Mankind fears an evil man but heaven does not.

If time is not real, then the dividing line between this world and eternity, between suffering and bliss, between good and evil, is also an illusion.

It is absolutely forbidden to repay evil with evil.

If you know that a thing is unrighteous, then use all dispatch in putting an end to it–why wait till next year?

Societies need to have one illness which becomes identified with evil, and attaches blame to its victims.

Nature soaks every evil with either fear or shame.

He [God] watched over me before I knew him, and before I learned sense or even distinguished between good and evil, and he protected me, and consoled me as a father would his son.

And all the voices, all the goals, all the yearnings, all the sorrows, all the pleasures, all the good and evil, all of them together was the world. All of them together was the stream of events, the music of life.