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.

- Alexander Hamilton

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

- Alexander Hamilton

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.

- Alexander Hamilton

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.

- Alexander Hamilton

You should not have taken advantage of my sensibility to steal into my affections without my consent.

- Alexander Hamilton

Nobody expects to trust his body overmuch after the age of fifty.

- Alexander Hamilton

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

- Alexander Hamilton

A well adjusted person is one who makes the same mistake twice without getting nervous.

- Alexander Hamilton

Learn to think continentally.

- Alexander Hamilton

Power over a man's subsistence is power over his will.

- Alexander Hamilton

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.

- Alexander Hamilton

The nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master and deserves one.

- Alexander Hamilton

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.

- Alexander Hamilton

It's not tyranny we desire; it's a just, limited, federal government.

- Alexander Hamilton

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

- Alexander Hamilton

A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.

- Alexander Hamilton

The voice of the people has been said to be the voice of God; and, however generally this maxim has been quoted and believed, it is not true to fact. The people are turbulent and changing, they seldom judge or determine right.

- Alexander Hamilton

There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism.

- Alexander Hamilton

I think the first duty of society is justice.

- Alexander Hamilton

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.

- Alexander Hamilton