Alexander Hamilton Quotes About Character

Quotes about: Character

• 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

  Character, Democracies Have, Government

  Alexander Hamilton (1850). “The works of Alexander Hamilton; compris. his corresp. and his polit. and official writings, excl. of the federalist, civil and military. Ed. by John C. Hamilton”, p.440

• No character, however upright, is a match for constantly reiterated attacks, however false.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Character, Human Condition

  Alexander Hamilton (1797). “Observations on certain documents in "The history of the United States for the year 1796,"”, p.12

• The awful discretion, which a court of impeachments must necessarily have, to doom to honor or to infamy the most confidential and the most distinguished characters of the community, forbids the commitment of the trust to a small number of persons.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Character, Commitment, Small Numbers

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2003). “The Federalist: With Letters of Brutus”, p.319, Cambridge University Press

• Energy in the executive is a leading character in the definition of good government. It is essential to the protection of the community against foreign attacks; it is not less essential to the steady administration of the laws; to the protection of property against those irregular and high-handed combinations which sometimes interrupt the ordinary course of justice; to the security of liberty against the enterprises and assaults of ambition, of faction, and of anarchy.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Character, Ambition, Law

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Quentin P. Taylor, John Jay (1998). “The Essential Federalist: A New Reading of the Federalist Papers”, p.133, Rowman & Littlefield

• Perhaps myself the first, at some expense of popularity, to unfold the true character of Jefferson, it is too late for me to become his apologist. Nor can I have any disposition to do it. I admit that his politics are tinctured with fanaticism, that he is too much in earnest in his democracy, that he has been a mischievous enemy to the principle measures of our past administration, that he is crafty & persevering in his objects, that he is not scrupulous about the means of success, nor very mindful of truth, and that he is a contemptible hypocrite.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Truth, Character, Hypocrite

  Alexander Hamilton (1851). “Correspondence [contin.] 1795-1804; 1777; 1791. Letters of H.G. 1789. Address to public creditors. 1790. Vindication of funding system. 1791”, p.419

• The truth is that the general genius of a government is all that can be substantially relied upon for permanent effects. Particular provisions, though not altogether useless, have far less virtue and efficacy than are commonly ascribed to them; and the want of them will never be with men of sound discernment a decisive objection to any plan which exhibits the leading characters of a good government.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Character, Men, Sound

  Alexander Hamilton (1810). “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 ...”, p.287, New York : Williams and Whitings

• The love for our native land strengthens our individual and national character.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Character, Land, Individual

• To model our political system upon speculations of lasting tranquility, is to calculate on the weaker springs of the human character.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Spring, Character, Political

  1787-8 The Federalist Papers.

• In so strong a light, nevertheless, do they appear to the Secretary, that, on their due observance, at the present critical juncture, materially depend, in his judgment, the individual and aggregate prosperity of the citizens of the United States; their relief from the embarrassments they now experience; their character as a people; the cause of good government.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Strong, Character, Light

  United States. Dept. of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton (1828). “Reports of the secretary of the Treasury of the United States”, p.4

• That this gentleman [President John Adams] ought not to be the object of the federal wish, is, with me, reduced to demonstration. His administration has already very materially disgraced and sunk the government. There are defects in his character which must inevitably continue to do this more and more. And if he is supported by the federal party, his party must in the issue fall with him.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Party, Fall, Character

• The scheme of separate confederacies, which will always multiply the chances of ambition, will be a never failing bait to all such influential characters in the State administrations as are capable of preferring their own emolument and advancement to the public weal.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Ambition, Character, Federalism

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2003). “The Federalist: With Letters of Brutus”, p.290, Cambridge University Press

• In all very numerous assemblies, of whatever character composed, passion never fails to wrest the sceptre from reason. Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Character, Passion, Citizens

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay, J.R. Pole (2005). “The Federalist”, p.301, Hackett Publishing

• It is impossible not to bestow the imputation of deliberate imposture and deception upon the gross pretense of a similitude between a king of Great Britain and a magistrate of the character marked out for that of the President of the United States. It is still more impossible to withhold that imputation from the rash and barefaced expedients which have been employed to give success to the attempted imposition.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Kings, Character, Giving

  Source: www.foxnews.com

• It may be said that the power of preventing bad laws includes that of preventing good ones; and may be used to the one purpose as well as to the other. But this objection will have little weight with those who can properly estimate the mischiefs of that inconstancy and mutability in the laws, which form the greatest blemish in the character and genius of our governments.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Character, Law, Government

  Alexander Hamilton (2014). “The Federalist Papers: Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay”, p.372, Yale University Press

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