In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.
ALEXANDER HAMILTONThe government is frequently and aptly classed under two descriptions – a government of force, and a government of laws; the first is the definition of despotism- the last, of liberty.
More Alexander Hamilton Quotes
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I never expect a perfect work from an imperfect man.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON -
The honor of a nation is its life.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON -
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.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON -
We must make the best of those ills which cannot be avoided.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON -
I have learned to hold popular opinion of no value.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON -
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.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON -
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.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON -
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.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON -
There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON -
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.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON -
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.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON -
Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of man will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON -
A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON -
Men are rather reasoning than reasonable animals, for the most part governed by the impulse of passion.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON -
If the sword of oppression be permitted to lop off one limb without opposition, reiterated strokes will soon dismember the whole body.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON