Talk:Alexander Hamilton

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Error on the page

James Madison wrote Federalist #62, not Alexander Hamilton

Falsely Attributed

"Those who stand for nothing fall for anything." - This has been falsely attributed, likely due to name confusion with British journalist Alex Hamilton, who said this in 1978. Reference

Also attributed (very close paraphrase) to Malcolm X- if accurately attributed, then (of course) before 1966... - 104.229.71.84 02:46, 9 February 2015 (UTC) (User Schissel @ Wikipedia.)

Bogus Source

This quote is sourced to Federalist #28 -- but it does not occur within that document:

"The militia is a voluntary force not associated or under the control of the States except when called out; a permanent or long standing force would be entirely different in make-up and call."

Unsourced

Wikiquote no longer allows unsourced quotations, and they are in process of being removed from our pages (see Wikiquote:Limits on quotations); but if you can provide a reliable and precise source for any quote on this list please move it to Alexander Hamilton. --Antiquary 21:14, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

• For my own part, I sincerely esteem it a system which without the finger of God, never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests.

"Caesar", Letter II, New-York Daily Advertiser, 17 October 1787 -- often but wrongly attributed to Alexander Hamilton

• A promise must never be broken.
  • This is a fragment from a letter to his son dated 5 December 1791; it hardly seems distinctive enough to be quoted. The text reads "You remember that I engaged to send for you next Saturday, and I will do it unless you request me to put it off; for a promise must never be broken, and I never will make you one which I will not fill as far as I am able; but it has occurred to me that the Christmas holidays are near at hand, and I suppose your school will then break up for a few days and give you an opportunity of coming to stay with us for a longer time than if you should come on Saturday."

• I have a tender reliance on the mercy of the Almighty, through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am a sinner. I look to Him for mercy; pray.... for me.

• I think the first duty of society is justice.
  • This was actually said by Wendell Phillips. I'm going to move it to him.

• 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.

• It's not tyranny we desire; it's a just, limited, federal government,

• Learn to think continentally.

• 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.

• 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.

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

• 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.

• There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism.

• This is the constitution... Now, mark my words. So long as we are a young and virtuous people, this instument will bind us together in mutual interests, mutual welfare, and mutual happiness. But when we become old and corrupt, it will bind no longer.

• Those who do not industrialize become hewers of wood and haulers of water.

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

• 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.

• This is a mortal wound, doctor.

The quote "For my own part, I sincerely esteem it a system, which, without the finger of God, never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests" is NOT a Hamilton quote; it is from a newspaper essay, "Caesar," Letter II, appearing in the New York Daily Advertiser for 17 October 1787. Most scholars agree that this essay and its precursor were plants by opponents of the Constitution seeking to satirize arguments for the document, and the attribution to Hamilton is based on nothing more than wishful thinking. -- RBB1787

I removed several quotations for which sources have been located from the above list. Sbh 04:45, 8 July 2011 (UTC)

Activist Judges: The Breaking of the American System

The Government cannot determine the Character of a Nation. The Character of the People of a Nation determine the Government.

Joseph V. Ruggiero 2014