Alexander Hamilton

"The true test of civilization is not the census, nor the size of cities, but the kind of man the country turns out."

"I never expect to see a perfect work from an imperfect man."

"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed."

"Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it."

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

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

"There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself."

"The inquiry which has been made into the effects of ardent spirits upon the human body and mind affords a powerful illustration of the mischiefs of intemperance."

"It is not a question of how much power the federal government should have, but rather how that power should be exercised."

"The sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered as finally staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people."

"One great error is that we suppose mankind more honest than they are."

"Every day proves to me more and more that this American world was not made for me."

"The credit of a nation is its best treasure."

"Sensibility and imagination are man's most valuable possessions."

"I have thought it my duty to exhibit things as they are, not as they ought to be."

"In the composition of the human frame there is a good deal of inflammable matter, however dormant it may lie for a time."

"It is the advertiser who provides the psychological tools which can ease the cramped and world-weary mind."

"The Constitution is the guide which I never will abandon."

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

"A fondness for reading, which properly directed, may be converted to a valuable source of instruction and entertainment."

"The loss of liberty is the loss of all."

"If we are in a perilous situation, it is the result of our own folly."

"I am not going to say whether the decision was right or wrong, but I am astonished at it."

"Industry and frugality are the basis of respectability and success."

"The mind must be strengthened as well as the body."

"Think as you please and speak as you think."

"A promise must never be broken."

"History will tell us whether this nation can endure."

"The elevation of the few upon the ruins of the many has ever been the project of the ambitious and the vicious."

"Delay in one thing is delay in everything."