Alexander Hamilton

"Think continentally and act deliberately."

"The principles of the Constitution are eternal."

"When once a man is hardened by a profession, he loses the sense of moral feeling."

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

"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."

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

"Beware that you are not made the tool of designing men."

"The Constitution is the wise offspring of experience, the legitimate child of patriotism."

"Industry and frugality are the means of wealth; idleness and profligacy are the means of poverty."

"Those who stand for nothing fall for anything."

"The Constitution as written was defective and had to be fixed by the sword."

"I have carefully examined the evidences that Christianity is true, and I have come to the solid conviction that it is so."

"We are now forming a republican government. Real liberty is never found in despotism."

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

"Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see."

"The loss of liberty is usually precipitated by assuming it is secure."

"You may analyze anything, but you cannot decompose everything."

"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock."

"A friend in need is a friend indeed, but the burden should never overwhelm the bond."

"The more you observe, the more you understand; the more you understand, the more you see."

"Great ambition without corresponding ability leads invariably to self-destruction."

"The gratitude of a people is a frail support for those who have rendered them important services."

"Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot."

"A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying he is wiser today than yesterday."

"The inquiry which has occupied me is whether the Constitution, as originally framed, was a good one."

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom."

"When you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men all their prejudices."

"It is impossible for democracy to survive in a nation of ignorant and apathetic citizens."

"The path to greatness lies not in the absence of difficulty, but in the courage to face it."

"To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea."