Quotes from Alexander Hamilton

It is very extraordinary, if the head of the money department of a country, being unprincipled enough to sacrifice his trust and his integrity, could not have contrived objects of profit sufficiently large to have engaged the co-operation of men of far greater importance than Reynolds, and with whom there could have been due safety, and should have been driven to the necessity of unkennelling such a reptile to be the instrument of his cupidity.

when a people or family so divide, it never fails to be against themselves

When the sword is once drawn, the passions of men observe no bounds of moderation.

A government ought to contain in itself every power requisite to the full accomplishment of the objects committed to its care, and to the complete execution of the trusts for which it is responsible; free from every other control but a regard to the public good and to the sense of the people.

It is a sound and important principle that the representative ought to be acquainted with the interests and circumstances of his constituents.

divisions at home would invite dangers from abroad;

articles of confederation.

Those which are of most importance, and which seem most to require local knowledge, are commerce, taxation, and the militia.

And yet, from the want of the fostering influence of commerce, that monarch can boast but slender revenues. He has several times been compelled to owe obligations to the pecuniary succors of other nations for the preservation of his essential interests, and is unable, upon the strength of his own resources, to sustain a long or continued war.

Power controlled or abridged is almost always the rival and enemy of that power by which it is controlled or abridged.

Let Americans disdain to be the instruments of European greatness! Let the thirteen States, bound together in a strict and indissoluble Union, concur in erecting one great American system, superior to the control of all transatlantic force or influence, and able to dictate the terms of the connection between the old and the new world!

It is a received and well-founded maxim, that where no other circumstances affect the case, the greater the power is, the shorter ought to be its duration; and, conversely, the smaller the power, the more safely may its duration be protracted

If republican government is to be responsible, it must be responsive to the people and answerable to their will. But if it is to be responsible in the more positive sense, it must go beyond mere responsiveness and be able to serve the people's true interests or their reasonable will, even if this course of conduct is not immediately popular.

Territorial disputes have at all times been found one of the most fertile sources of hostility among nations. Perhaps the greatest proportion of wars that have desolated the earth have sprung from this origin.

Nothing was more to be desired than that every practicable obstacle should be opposed to cabal, intrigue, and corruption. These most deadly adversaries of republican government might naturally have been expected to make their approaches from more than one quarter, but chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils. How could they better gratify this, than by raising a creature of their own

Absorbes mis pensamientos de manera tan íntima como para permitirme pensar en otra cosa –no sólo ocupas mi mente todo el día; te introduces en mi sueño. Te encuentro en cada sueño –y cuando despierto no puedo cerrar mis ojos otra vez por reflexionar sobre tu dulzura.

Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires.

The inference to which we are brought is, that the CAUSES of faction cannot be removed, and that relief is only to be sought in the means of controlling its EFFECTS. If

If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. 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.

FAREWELL! A LONG FAREWELL TO ALL MY GREATNESS." PUBLIUS

Men are rather reasoning than reasonable animals, for the most part governed by the impulse of passion.

if we still will adhere to the design of a national government, or, which is the same thing, of a superintending power, under the direction of a common council, we must resolve to incorporate into our plan those ingredients which may be considered as forming the characteristic difference between a league and a government; we must extend the authority of the Union to the persons of the citizens,—the only proper objects of government.

Recherches philosophiques sur les Americains.

A sacred respect for the Constitutional Law is the vital principle, the sustaining energy of a free government.