Quotes by Hamilton, Alexander

Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757 July 12, 1804) was an American politician, statesman, journalist, lawyer, and soldier. One of the United States' most prominent and brilliant early constitutional lawyers, he was an influential delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention and the principal author of the Federalist Papers, which successfully defended the U.S. Constitution to skeptical New Yorkers. He also put the new United States of America onto a sound economic footing as its first and most influential Secretary of the Treasury, establishing the First Bank of the United States, public credit and the foundations for American capitalism and stock and commodity exchanges. Alexander Hamilton died in a duel with fellow politician Aaron Burr..

"Real firmness is good for anything; strut is good for nothing."

Hamilton, Alexander on firmness

"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."

Hamilton, Alexander on genius
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"Even to observe neutrality you must have a strong government."

Hamilton, Alexander on government

"Power over a man's subsistence amounts to power over his will."

Hamilton, Alexander on power

"Man is a reasoning rather than a reasonable animal."

Hamilton, Alexander on reason

"Such a wife as I want... must be young, handsome I lay most stress upon a good shape, sensible a little learning will do, well-bread, chaste, and tender. As to religion, a moderate stock will satisfy me. She must believe in God and hate a saint."

Hamilton, Alexander on wives

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

Hamilton, Alexander on adaptability
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"A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing."

Hamilton, Alexander on conceit

"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."

Hamilton, Alexander on constitutions

"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. "

Hamilton, Alexander on uncategorised

"Here, sir, the people govern; here they act by their immediate representatives. "

Hamilton, Alexander on uncategorised

"The system is the best that the present views and circumstances of the country will permit. "

Hamilton, Alexander on uncategorised

"The history of human conduct does not warrant that exalted opinion of human virtue which would make it wise in a nation to commit interests of so delicate and momentous a kind as those which concern its intercourse with the rest of the world to the sole disposal of a magistrate, created and circumstanced, as would be a President of the United States. "

Hamilton, Alexander on uncategorised

"When occasions present themselves, in which the interests of the people are at variance with their inclinations, it is the duty of the persons whom they have appointed to be the guardians of those interests, to withstand the temporary delusion, in order to give them time and opportunity for more cool and sedate reflection. "

Hamilton, Alexander on uncategorised

"In the usual progress of things, the necessities of a nation in every stage of its existence will be found at least equal to its resources. "

Hamilton, Alexander on uncategorised

"In the main it will be found that a power over a mans support [salary] is a power over his will. "

Hamilton, Alexander on uncategorised

"A garden, you know, is a very usual refuge of a disappointed politician. Accordingly, I have purchased a few acres about nine miles from town, have built a house, and am cultivating a garden. "

Hamilton, Alexander on uncategorised

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

Hamilton, Alexander on uncategorised

"Your people, sir, is nothing but a great beast!"

Hamilton, Alexander on uncategorised

"The fundamental source of all your errors, sophisms, and false reasonings, is a total ignorance of the natural rights of mankind. Were you once to become acquainted with these, you could never entertain a thought, that all men are not, by nature, entitled to a parity of privileges. You would be convinced, that natural liberty is a gift of the beneficent Creator, to the whole human race; and that civil liberty is founded in that; and cannot be wrested from any people, without the most manifest violation of justice. Civil liberty is only natural liberty, modified and secured by the sanctions of civil society. It is not a thing, in its own nature, precarious and dependent on human will and caprice; but it is conformable to the constitution of man, as well as necessary to the well-being of society. "

Hamilton, Alexander on uncategorised

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