Alexander Hamilton Quotes

Your people, sir, is nothing but a great beast.

Take mankind in general; they are vicious, their passions may be operated upon.

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.

I never expect to see a perfect work from an imperfect man.

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 or obscured by mortal power.

It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their […]

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.

Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.

If circumstances should at any time oblige the government to form an army of any magnitude, that army can never be formidable to the liberties of the people, while there is a large body of citizens little if at all inferior to them in discipline and the use of arms, who stand ready to defend […]

We must make the best of those ills which cannot be avoided.