Alexander Hamilton was an American statesman, politician, legal scholar, military commander, lawyer, banker and economist. He was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He was a key figure in the ratification of the US constitution and a prolific writer in its defence. Timeless Alexander Hamilton’s most well-known quotes will broaden your views about life, humanity, the government, and many more.
If you’re searching for best known presidential quotes that perfectly capture what you’d like to say or just want to feel inspired yourself, browse through an amazing collection of powerful Benjamin Franklin quotes, inspiring George Washington quotes, and best Thomas Jefferson quotes.
Most Famous Alexander Hamilton Quotes
Hard words are very rarely useful. Real firmness is good for every thing. Strut is good for nothing.
Experience is the oracle of truth; and where its responses are unequivocal, they ought to be conclusive and sacred.
A well-adjusted person is one who makes the same mistake twice without getting nervous.
I never expect a perfect work from an imperfect man.
Those who stand for nothing fall for everything.
We must make the best of those ills which cannot be avoided.
Men give me credit for some genius. All the genius I have is this. When I have a subject in mind. I study it profoundly. Day and night it is before me. My mind becomes pervaded with it… the effort which I have made is what people are pleased to call the fruit of genius. It is the fruit of labor and thought.
I have thought it my duty to exhibit things as they are, not as they ought to be.
Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of man will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.
Here, sir, the people govern; here they act by their immediate representatives.
Vigor of government is essential to the security of liberty.
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.
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.
Nobody expects to trust his body overmuch after the age of fifty.
You should not have taken advantage of my sensibility to steal into my affections without my consent.
I have learned to hold popular opinion of no value.
Give all the power to the many, they will oppress the few. Give all the power to the few, they will oppress the many.
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.
Real liberty is neither found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.
The system, though it may not be perfect in every part, is, upon the whole, a good one; is the best that the present views and circumstances of the country will permit; and is such an one as promises every species of security which a reasonable people can desire.
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.
The very aim and intention of the democratical part, or the house of commons, is to secure the rights of the people. Its very being depends upon those rights. Its whole power is derived from them, and must be terminated by them.
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.
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.
Inspirational Alexander Hamilton Quotes
There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism.
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.
The honor of a nation is its life.
There are seasons in every country when noise and impudence pass current for worth; and in popular commotions especially, the clamours of interested and factious men are often mistaken for patriotism.
I consider civil liberty, is a genuine, unadulterated sense, as the greatest of terrestrial blessing. I am convinced that the whole human race is entitled to it. And, that it can be wrested from no part of them, without the blackest and most aggravated guilt.
A powerful, victorious ally is yet another name for master.
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.
The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.
Nature of war to increase the executive at the expense of the legislative authority.
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.
The passions of a revolution are apt to hurry even good men into excesses.
Men are rather reasoning than reasonable animals, for the most part governed by the impulse of passion.
In the general course of human nature, A power over a man’s subsistence amounts to a power over his will.
When the sword is once drawn, the passions of men observe no bounds of moderation.
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.
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.
To all general purposes we have uniformly been one people each individual citizen everywhere enjoying the same national rights, privileges, and protection.
Constitutions should consist only of general provisions; the reason is that they must necessarily be permanent, and that they cannot calculate for the possible change of things.
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.
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.
The President, and government, will only control the militia when a part of them is in the actual service of the federal government, else, they are independent and not under the command of the president or the government.
