Alexander Hamilton Human Nature Quotations

That experience is the parent of wisdom is an adage the truth of which is recognized by the wisest as well as the simplest of mankind.

Happy will it be for ourselves, and most honorable for human nature, if we have wisdom and virtue enough to set so glorious an example to mankind!

Common interest may always be reckoned upon as the surest bond of sympathy.

A fondness for power is implanted in most men, and it is natural to abuse it when acquired.

Take mankind as they are, and what are they governed by? Their passions.

Take mankind in general, they are vicious-their passions may be operated upon.

Has it not. . . invariably been found that momentary passions, and immediate interests, have a more active and imperious control over human conduct than general or remote considerations of policy, utility and justice?

The same state of the passions which fits the multitude, who have not a sufficient stock of reason and knowledge to guide them, for opposition to tyranny and oppression, very naturally leads them to a contempt and disregard of all authority.

It is a general principle of human nature, that a man will be interested in whatever he possesses, in proportion to the firmness or precariousness of the tenure by which he holds it...

Necessity, especially in politics, often occasions false hopes, false reasonings, and a system of measures, correspondingly erroneous.

When men, engaged in unjustifiable pursuits, are aware that obstructions may come from a quarter which bare apprehension of opposition from doing what they would with eagerness rush into if no such external impediments were to be feared.

These are not vague inferences . . . but they are solid conclusions drawn from the natural and necessary progress of human affairs.