“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.”

Nature of war to increase the executive at the expense of the legislative authority.

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

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

When avarice takes the lead in a state, it is commonly the forerunner of its fall.

Caution and investigation are a necessary armor against error and imposition.

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.

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.

The honor of a nation is its life.

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 source of the government’s authority is “the consent of the governed.

Despotic governments can stand ‘moral force’ till the cows come home; what they fear is physical force.

When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer ‘Present’ or ‘Not Guilty’.

A government is the most dangerous threat to man’s rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims.

Taxes are the source of life for the bureaucracy, the army and the court, in short, for the whole apparatus of the executive power. Strong government and heavy taxes are identical.

Every reform movement has a lunatic fringe.

Do not elect people who do not have God and Love in their hearts.

The vote controls everything that you do.