The voice of the people has been said to be the voice of God; and, however generally this maxim has been quoted and believed, it is not true to fact. The people are turbulent and changing, they seldom judge or determine right.
ALEXANDER HAMILTONThe 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.
More Alexander Hamilton Quotes
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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.
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A tolerable expertness in military movements is a business that requires time and practice. It is not a day, or even a week, that will suffice for the attainment of it.
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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?
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Men are rather reasoning than reasonable animals, for the most part governed by the impulse of passion.
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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.
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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.
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Let us recollect that peace or war will not always be left to our option; that however moderate or unambitious we may be, we cannot count upon the moderation, or hope to extinguish the ambition of others.
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Hard words are very rarely useful. Real firmness is good for every thing. Strut is good for nothing.
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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)
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All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first are the rich and well-born, the other the mass of the people.
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Caution and investigation are a necessary armor against error and imposition.
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The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.
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We must make the best of those ills which cannot be avoided.
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A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.
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Real liberty is neither found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments.
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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.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON -
There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism.
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There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism.
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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.
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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.
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For 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.
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I have thought it my duty to exhibit things as they are, not as they ought to be.
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The 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.
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Here, sir, the people govern; here they act by their immediate representatives.
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To all general purposes we have uniformly been one people each individual citizen everywhere enjoying the same national rights, privileges, and protection.
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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