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Alexander Hamilton Quotes

Founding Father of the United States

Alexander Hamilton was a Founding Father of the United States, born on January 11, 1757, and died on July 12, 1804. He played a crucial role in the American Revolutionary War and was instrumental in the drafting of the U.S. Constitution. As the first Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton promoted fiscal stability and economic growth, establishing the First Bank of the United States and proposing solutions for federal debt. His ideas and policies had a profound impact on the early political and economic development of the United States.

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Famous Alexander Hamilton Quotes

“Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of man will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.”

Men Reason Government Passion Justice Conformity Conform Constraints Total War Federalist Federalist Papers Purpose Of Government

Author:Alexander Hamilton

“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.”

Fire Aim Absurd Persecution Heresy Separation Of Church And State State Government Separation Between Church And State Federalist Federalist Papers

Book:The Federalist Papers: The Making of the US Constitution

Source: The Federalist Papers: The Making of the US Constitution

“It has been frequently remarked, that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country to decide, by their conduct and example, 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 political constitutions, on accident and force.”

Source: The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Comprising His Most Important Official Reports: An Improved Edition of the Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in 1788; and Pacificus, on the Proclamation of Neutrality, Written in 1793 ...

“It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is to-day, can guess what it will be tomorrow.”

Source: The Essential Federalist: A New Reading of the Federalist Papers

“In a free government, the security for civil rights must be the same as that for religious rights. It consists in the one case in the multiplicity of interests, and in the other in the multiplicity of sects.”

Government Interest Religious Cases Rights Security Positive Atheism Civil Rights Sects Multiplicity Federalist Free Government Federalist Papers Religious Rights

Book:The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788

Source: The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788

“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.”

May War Left Ambition Moderation Moderates Total War Federalist Federalist Papers

Book:The Federalist

Source: The Federalist

“[V]igor of government is essential to the security of liberty.”

Government Liberty Security Essentials Federalist Federalist Papers

Book:The Fœderalist: A Collection of Essays, Written in Favor of the New Constitution, as Agreed Upon by the Fœderal Convention, September 17, 1787. Reprinted from the Original Text. With an Historical Introduction and Notes

Source: The Fœderalist: A Collection of Essays, Written in Favor of the New Constitution, as Agreed Upon by the Fœderal Convention, September 17, 1787. Reprinted from the Original Text. With an Historical Introduction and Notes

“Safety from external danger is the most powerful director of national conduct. To be more safe, [nations] at length become willing to run the risk of being less free.”

Running Nations Powerful Liberty Risk Danger Willing Directors Safe Safety Length Most Powerful Federalist Federalist Papers Security And Liberty

Book:The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788

Source: The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788

“The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.”

“...that standing army can never be formidable (threatening) to the liberties of the people, while there is a large body of citizens, little if at all inferior to them in the use of arms.”

“If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no recourse left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defense which is paramount to all positive forms of government.”

Source: America's Founding Documents: The Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the United States Constitution, the Federalist Papers, and the Bill of Rights

“The proposed Constitution, so far from implying an abolition of the State governments, makes them constituent parts of the national sovereignty, by allowing them a direct representation in the Senate, and leaves in their possession certain exclusive and very important portions of sovereign power. This fully corresponds, in every rational import of the terms, with the idea of a federal government.”

Source: The Essential Federalist: A New Reading of the Federalist Papers

“Of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people, commencing demagogues and ending tyrants.”

People Men Political Politics Numbers Liberty Careers Court Tyranny Republic Tyrants Federalist Federalist Papers

Book:The Federalist Papers: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution

Source: The Federalist Papers: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution

“If the federal government should overpass the just bounds of its authority and make a tyrannical use of its powers, the people, whose creature it is, must appeal to the standard they have formed, and take such measures to redress the injury done to the Constitution as the exigency may suggest and prudence justify.”

Source: The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788

“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!”

“I go further, and affirm that bills of rights, in the sense and to the extent in which they are contended for, are not only unnecessary in the proposed Constitution, but would even be dangerous. They would contain various exceptions to powers not granted; and on this very account, would afford a colorable pretext to claim more than were granted. For why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do?”

Done Rights Dangerous Accounts Constitution Claims Bills Various Granted Exception Unnecessary Bill Of Rights Pretext Federalist Federalist Papers

Book:The Federalist Papers and the Constitution of the United States: The Principles of the American Government

Source: The Federalist Papers and the Constitution of the United States: The Principles of the American Government

“[T]here is not a syllable in the plan under consideration which directly empowers the national courts to construe the laws according to the spirit of the Constitution.”

Law Spirit Plans Constitution Court Empowering Consideration Syllables Judiciary Federalist Federalist Papers

Book:The federalist papers

Source: The federalist papers

“The interpretation of the laws is the proper and peculiar province of the courts. A constitution is, in fact, and must be regarded by the judges, as fundamental law. It therefore belongs to them to ascertain its meaning, as well as the meaning of any particular act proceeding from the legislative body. If there should happen to be an irreconcilable variance between the two, that which has the superior obligation and validity ought, of course, to be preferred; or, in other words, the Constitution ought to be preferred to the statute, the intention of the people to the intention of their agents.”

Source: The Essential Federalist: A New Reading of the Federalist Papers

“Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known and less fixed?”

Littles Action Law Known Defined Fixed Freedom And Liberty Freedom Liberty Property Rights Federalist Papers Liberty And Justice

Book:The Essential Federalist: A New Reading of the Federalist Papers

Source: The Essential Federalist: A New Reading of the Federalist Papers

“The complete independence of the courts of justice is peculiarly essential in a limited Constitution. By a limited Constitution, I understand one which contains certain specified exceptions to the legislative authority. Limitations of this kind can be preserved in practice no other way than through the medium of courts of justice, whose duty it must be to declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void. Without this, all the reservations of particular rights or privileges would amount to nothing.”

“Experience is the oracle of truth; and where its responses are unequivocal, they ought to be conclusive and sacred.”

Ought Sacred Response Federalist Oracles Federalist Papers Unequivocal

Book:The Federalist, on the new constitution, written in 1788, with an appendix, containing the letters of Pacificus and Helvidius on the proclamation of neutrality of 1793, also the original articles of confederation and the constitution of the United States

Source: The Federalist, on the new constitution, written in 1788, with an appendix, containing the letters of Pacificus and Helvidius on the proclamation of neutrality of 1793, also the original articles of confederation and the constitution of the United States

“A feeble executive implies a feeble execution of the government. A feeble execution is but another phrase for a bad execution; and a government ill executed, whatever may be its theory, must be, in practice, a bad government.”

May Government Practice Theory Ill Phrases Executives Execution Federalist Federalist Papers Bad Government

Book:The federalist papers

Source: The federalist papers

“This [a state militia system] appears to me the only substitute that can be devised for a standing army, and the best possible security against it, if it should exist.”