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Alexander Hamilton

United States statesman and leader of the Federalists; as the first Secretary of the Treasury he establish a federal bank; was mortally wounded in a duel with Aaron Burr (1755-1804)

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Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.

– Alexander Hamilton

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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

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

– Alexander Hamilton

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For 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

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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

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Men give me credit for some genius. All the genius I have is this. When I have a subject in mind. I study it profoundly. Day and night it is before me. My mind becomes pervaded with it... 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

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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

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To admit foreigners indiscriminately to the rights of citizens the moment they put foot in our country would be nothing less than to admit the Grecian horse into the citadel of our liberty and sovereignty.

– Alexander Hamilton

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[T]here is a wide difference between closing the door altogether and throwing it entirely open; between a postponement of fourteen years and an immediate admission to all the rights of citizenship. Some reasonable term ought to be allowed to enable aliens to get rid of foreign and acquire American attachments; to learn the principles and imbibe the spirit of our government; and to admit of at least a probability of their feeling a real interest in our affairs.

– Alexander Hamilton

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There are approximately 1,010,300 words in the English language, but I could never string enough words together to properly explain how much I want to hit you with a chair.”

– Alexander Hamilton

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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

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Your people, sir, is nothing but a great beast!

– Alexander Hamilton

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Power over a man's subsistence amounts to power over his will.

– Alexander Hamilton

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The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for, among old parchments, or musty records. They are written, as with a sun beam, 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

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It has been observed that a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved that no position is more false than this. The ancient democracies in which the people themselves deliberated never possessed one good feature of government. Their very character was tyranny their figure deformity.

– Alexander Hamilton

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...for it is a truth, which the experience of all ages has attested, that the people are commonly most in danger when the means of insuring their rights are in the possession of those of whom they entertain the least suspicion.

– Alexander Hamilton

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

– Alexander Hamilton

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If it be asked, What is the most sacred duty and the greatest source of our security in a Republic? The answer would be, An inviolable respect for the Constitution and Laws.

– Alexander Hamilton

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If the Constitution is adopted the Union will be in fact and in theory an association of States of a Confederacy.

– Alexander Hamilton

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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...

– Alexander Hamilton

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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.

– Alexander Hamilton

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In the general course of human nature, A power over a man's subsistence amounts to a power over his will.

– Alexander Hamilton

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In the main it will be found that a power over a mans support [salary] is a power over his will.

– Alexander Hamilton

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In the recommendation to admit indiscriminately foreign emigrants of every description to the privileges of American citizens on their first entrance into our country, there is an attempt to break down every pale which has been erected for the preservation of a national spirit and a national character; and to let in the most powerful means of perverting and corrupting both the one and the other.

– Alexander Hamilton

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Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit. In a society under the forms of which the stronger faction can readily unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as truly be said to reign as in a state of nature, where the weaker individual is not secured against the violence of the stronger; and as, in the latter state, even the individuals are prompted, by the uncertainty of their condition, to submit to a government which may protect the weak as well as themselves; so, in the former state, will the more powerful factions or parties be gradually induced, by a like motive to wish for a government which will protect all parties, the weaker as well as the more powerful.

– Alexander Hamilton

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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

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Power may be justly compared to a great river while kept within its bounds it is both beautiful and useful, but when it overflows its banks, it is then too impetuous to be stemmed it bears down all before it, and brings destruction and desolation wherever it goes.

– Alexander Hamilton

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

– Alexander Hamilton

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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

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The safety of a republic depends essentially on the energy of a common national sentiment; on a uniformity of principles and habits; on the exemption of the citizens from foreign bias and prejudice, and on the love of country which will almost invariably be found to be closely connected with birth, education, and family. The opinion advanced in Notes on Virginia [by Thomas Jefferson] is undoubtedly correct, that foreigners will generally be apt to bring with them attachments to the persons they have left behind; to the country of their nativity, and to its particular customs and manners. They will also entertain opinions on government congenial with those under which they have lived; or, if they should be led hither from a preference to ours, how extremely unlikely is it that they will bring with them that temperate love of liberty, so essential to real republicanism?

– Alexander Hamilton

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

– Alexander Hamilton

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We must make the best of those ills which cannot be avoided.

– Alexander Hamilton

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When men exercise their reason coolly and freely on a variety of distinct questions, they inevitably fall into different opinions on some of them. When they are governed by a common passion, their opinions, if they are to be called, will be the same.

– Alexander Hamilton

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

– Alexander Hamilton

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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

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Quotes from the news wire:

That’s the world this body was created to end. And members of this Council have a unique responsibility to make sure we don’t return to it.

– Alexander Hamilton

Found on CNN 1 year ago

Chef Sean Sherman had been working in restaurant kitchens for decades. Then a strange fact struck Chef Sean Sherman : The food of Chef Sean Sherman people, the Oglala Sioux, was completely unrepresented in American cuisine … ’ I just had an epiphany.

– Alexander Hamilton

Found on FOX News 8 years ago

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