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 HAMILTONExperience is the oracle of truth; and where its responses are unequivocal, they ought to be conclusive and sacred.
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.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON -
Unless your government is respectable, foreigners will invade your rights; and to maintain tranquillity, it must be respectable – even to observe neutrality, you must have a strong government.
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 -
Safety from external danger is the most powerful director of national conduct.
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 -
Those who stand for nothing fall for everything.
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 -
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.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON -
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.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON -
A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON -
Here, sir, the people govern; here they act by their immediate representatives.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON -
I have learned to hold popular opinion of no value.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON -
Dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people than under the forbidden appearance of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of government.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON -
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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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)
ALEXANDER HAMILTON