Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Alexander Hamilton (American Statesman)

Alexander Hamilton (c.1757–1804) was an American founding father, Federalist politician, and statesman. The first secretary of the treasury of the U.S. 1789–95, he established the U.S. central banking system and championed a stable central government for the U.S.

Born a poor and illegitimate child on the island of Nevis in the British West Indies, Hamilton wrote a series of pamphlets in defense of the rights of the colonies against Great Britain and inspired his employers and friends to get the money together to send him to the U.S. mainland to advance his education.

Hamilton studied at King’s College (now Columbia) in New York City. He was captain of the artillery upon the outbreak of the American Revolution, and he served in New York and New Jersey, becoming George Washington’s aide-de-camp. In 1781, after a disagreement, he resigned from his appointment but fought at Yorktown, Virginia.

After the war, Hamilton studied law and became one of the most eminent lawyers in New York. In 1782, he was elected to the Continental Congress. In 1786, he played the leading role in the convention at Annapolis, which prepared the great Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia in 1787. In the same year, he conceived the series of essays arguing in favor of ratification, afterward collected as The Federalist Papers, and he wrote 51 out of the 85 papers.

Upon establishing the new government in 1789, Hamilton was appointed Secretary of the Treasury and restored the country’s finances to a firm footing. He devised a taxation system, insisted on payment of the national debt, and proposed the creation of the Bank of the United States. He and his supporters favored a stable central government and were mistrustful of an unbridled democracy; they clashed politically with Thomas Jefferson’s followers, who advocated limited government and envisaged an agrarian republic unsullied by commercial interests.

In 1795, Hamilton resigned from his office, but he remained the real leader of the Federalist Party until his death. His successful effort to thwart the ambition of his political rival, Vice President Aaron Burr, prompted Burr to challenge him to a duel in Weehawken, New Jersey. Hamilton was mortally wounded after firing into the air.

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s popular musical, Hamilton (2015; multiple 2016 Tony Awards,) is based on Hamilton’s life.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Alexander Hamilton

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.
—Alexander Hamilton
Topics: Wives, Marriage

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.
—Alexander Hamilton

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.
—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. The violent destruction of life and property incident to war, the continual effort and alarm attendant on a state of continual danger, will compel nations the most attached to liberty to resort for repose and security to institutions which have a tendency to destroy their civil and political rights. To be more safe, they at length become willing to run the risk of being less free.
—Alexander Hamilton
Topics: Liberty

A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.
—Alexander Hamilton
Topics: Nation, Vanity, Conceit

We must make the best of those ills which cannot be avoided.
—Alexander Hamilton
Topics: Acceptance

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.
—Alexander Hamilton
Topics: Slavery

I think the first duty of society is justice.
—Alexander Hamilton
Topics: Society, Duty

I never expect to see a perfect work from imperfect man.
—Alexander Hamilton

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

The system is the best that the present views and circumstances of the country will permit.
—Alexander Hamilton

Little more can reasonably be aimed at, with respect to the people at large, than to have them properly armed and equipped.
—Alexander Hamilton

Real firmness is good for anything; strut is good for nothing.
—Alexander Hamilton
Topics: Control

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.
—Alexander Hamilton

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.
—Alexander Hamilton
Topics: Humanity

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
Topics: Opposition

Men give me credit for some genius. All the genius I have lies in this: When I have a subject in hand, I study it profoundly. Day and night it is before me. I explore it in all its bearings. My mind becomes pervaded with it. Then 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.
—Alexander Hamilton
Topics: Strength, Genius, Labor

Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint.
—Alexander Hamilton
Topics: Government

It is of the nature of war to increase the executive at the expense of the legislative authority.
—Alexander Hamilton
Topics: Presidency

Even to observe neutrality you must have a strong government.
—Alexander Hamilton
Topics: Government

Here, sir, the people govern; here they act by their immediate representatives.
—Alexander Hamilton

Power over a man’s subsistence amounts to power over his will.
—Alexander Hamilton
Topics: Power

Our great error is that we suppose mankind more honest than they are.
—Alexander Hamilton
Topics: Honesty

Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.
—Alexander Hamilton
Topics: Belief, Beliefs, Business

In the main it will be found that a power over a mans support salary is a power over his will.
—Alexander Hamilton

The desire of reward is one of the strongest incentives of human conduct; … the best security for the fidelity of mankind is to make their interest coincide with their duty.
—Alexander Hamilton
Topics: Motivation

Man is a reasoning, rather than a reasonable, animal.
—Alexander Hamilton
Topics: Man, Decisions, Reason

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.
—Alexander Hamilton

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