Alexander Hamilton

I have been the sport of fortune.

I have been a stranger to the joys of domestic life.

I have been a wanderer on the face of the earth.

I have been a solitary being.

I have been a victim of my own imprudence.

I have been a fool.

I have been a madman.

I have been a very wicked man.

I have been a very unhappy man.

I have been a very miserable man.

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

Men are rather reasoning than reasonable animals.

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

I’d rather be a dictator than see the Union fail.

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.

Take away the fetters—the business of society will go on—the States will be for ever in debt, and be for ever struggling with the embarrassments of a depreciating paper.

The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right.

All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first are the rich and well born, the other the mass of the people.

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 in fact. The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right.

I have always been in favor of a general government, and I am in favor of it now.