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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

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Alexander Hamilton
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More quotes by Alexander Hamilton

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Every nation ought to have a right to provide for its own happiness.
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It is in vain to hope to guard against events too mighty for human foresight or precaution, and it would be idle to object to a government because it could not perform impossibilities.
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For my part, I sincerely esteem the Constitution, a system which without the finger of God, never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests.
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It was remarked yesterday that a numerous representation was necessary to obtain the confidence of the people. This is not generally true. The confidence of the people will easily be gained by a good administration. This is the true touchstone.
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The fabric of American empire ought to rest on the solid basis of THE CONSENT OF THE PEOPLE. The streams of national power ought to flow from that pure, original fountain of all legitimate authority.
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Civil liberty is only natural liberty, modified and secured by the sanctions of civil society.
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I never expect to see a perfect work from an imperfect man.
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[A] power equal to every possible contingency must exist somewhere in the government . . .
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The variety of more minute interests, which will necessarily fall under the superintendence of the local administrations . . . cannot be particularized without involving a detail too tedious and uninteresting to compensate for the instruction it might afford.
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When the sword is once drawn, the passions of men observe no bounds of moderation.
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[Imeachable conduct is] misconduct by public men, or, in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust.
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We must make the best of those ills which cannot be avoided.
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As to religion a moderate stock will satisfy me. She must believe in god and hate a saint.
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An over-scrupulous jealousy of danger to the rights of the people, which is more commonly the fault of the head than of the heart, will be represented as mere pretense and artifice, the stale bait for popularity at the expense of the public good.
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It is a singular capriciousness of the human mind, that after all the admonitions we have had from experience on this head, there should still be found men, who object to the new constitution for deviating from a principle which has been found the bane of the old.
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If we incline too much to democracy, we shall soon shoot into a monarchy.
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States, like individuals, who observe their engagements, are respected and trusted: while the reverse is the fate of those who pursue an opposite conduct.
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I have thought it my duty to exhibit things as they are, not as they ought to be.
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Take mankind in general, they are vicious-their passions may be operated upon.
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Its objects are CONTRACTS with foreign nations which have the force of law, but derive it from the obligations of good faith.
Alexander Hamilton