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Alexander Hamilton Quotes about Ambition

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Ambition without principle never was long under the guidance of good sense.

Ambition without principle never was long under the guidance of good sense.

Alexander Hamilton
Ambition, Long, Principles
Alexander Hamilton (1850). “The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Correspondence [contin.] 1795-1804; 1777; 1791. Letters of H. G. 1789. Address to public creditors. 1790. Vindication of funding system. 1791”, p.423

Great Ambition, unchecked by principle, or the love of Glory, is an unruly Tyrant.

Alexander Hamilton
Ambition, Tyrants, Principles
Alexander Hamilton (1850). “The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Correspondence [contin.] 1795-1804; 1777; 1791. Letters of H. G. 1789. Address to public creditors. 1790. Vindication of funding system. 1791”, p.423

There may be in every government a few choice spirits, who may act from more worthy motives. One great error is that we suppose mankind more honest than they are. Our prevailing passions are ambition and interest.

Alexander Hamilton
Passion, Ambition, Errors
Alexander Hamilton (1904). “The Works of Alexander Hamilton”

Energy in the executive is a leading character in the definition of good government. It is essential to the protection of the community against foreign attacks; it is not less essential to the steady administration of the laws; to the protection of property against those irregular and high-handed combinations which sometimes interrupt the ordinary course of justice; to the security of liberty against the enterprises and assaults of ambition, of faction, and of anarchy.

Alexander Hamilton
Character, Ambition, Law
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Quentin P. Taylor, John Jay (1998). “The Essential Federalist: A New Reading of the Federalist Papers”, p.133, Rowman & Littlefield

Let us recollect that peace or war will not always be left to our option; that however moderate or unambitious we may be, we cannot count upon the moderation, or hope to extinguish the ambition of others.

Alexander Hamilton
War, Ambition, May
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2009). “The Federalist”, p.208, Harvard University Press

The vigour of government is essential to the security of liberty. . . . a dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people, than under the forbidding appearance of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of government.

Alexander Hamilton
Ambition, Rights, Government
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay, J.R. Pole (2005). “The Federalist”, p.3, Hackett Publishing

I confess I am at a loss to discover what temptation the persons entrusted with the administration of the general government could ever feel to divest the States of the authorities of that description. The regulation of the mere domestic police of a State appears to me to hold out slender allurements to ambition.

Alexander Hamilton
Ambition, Loss, Government
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1852). “The Federalist, on the new constitution, written in 1788, with an appendix, containing the letters of Pacificus and Helvidius on the proclamation of neutrality of 1793, also the original articles of confederation and the constitution of the United States”, p.76

The scheme of separate confederacies, which will always multiply the chances of ambition, will be a never failing bait to all such influential characters in the State administrations as are capable of preferring their own emolument and advancement to the public weal.

Alexander Hamilton
Ambition, Character, Federalism
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2003). “The Federalist: With Letters of Brutus”, p.290, Cambridge University Press

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