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Alexander Hamilton Quotes about Passion

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

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

Alexander Hamilton
Passion, Men, Justice
The Federalist no. 15 (1788)

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

Alexander Hamilton
Passion, Men, Moderation
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Quentin P. Taylor, John Jay (1998). “The Essential Federalist: A New Reading of the Federalist Papers”, p.168, Rowman & Littlefield

The republican principle demands that the deliberate sense of the community should govern the conduct of those to whom they intrust the management of their affairs; but it does not require an unqualified complaisance to every sudden breeze of passion or to every transient impulse which the people may receive from the arts of men, who flatter their prejudices to betray their interests.

Alexander Hamilton
Art, Passion, Men
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2016). “The Federalist Papers and the Constitution of the United States: The Principles of the American Government”, p.383, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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”

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

Alexander Hamilton
Passion, Human Nature, Mankind
Alexander Hamilton (1962). “Jan. 1787-May 1788.-v. 5.June 1778-Nov. 1789.-v. 6. Dec. 1789-Aug. 1790”

It is an unquestionable truth, that the body of the people in every country desire sincerely its prosperity. But it is equally unquestionable that they do not possess the discernment and stability necessary for systematic government. To deny that they are frequently led into the grossest of errors, by misinformation and passion, would be a flattery which their own good sense must despise.

Alexander Hamilton
Country, Passion, Errors
Alexander Hamilton, John Church Hamilton (1850). “The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Miscellanies, 1774-1789: A full vindication; The farmer refuted; Quebec bill; Resolutions in Congress; Letters from Phocion; New-York Legislature, etc”, p.447

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?

Alexander Hamilton
Passion, Justice, Human Nature
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1842). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.26

Men are rather reasoning than reasonable animals for the most part governed by the impulse of passion.

Alexander Hamilton
Passion, Animal, Men
Alexander Hamilton, John Church Hamilton (1851). “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.541

In all very numerous assemblies, of whatever character composed, passion never fails to wrest the sceptre from reason. Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob.

Alexander Hamilton
Character, Passion, Citizens
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay, J.R. Pole (2005). “The Federalist”, p.301, Hackett Publishing

The prosecution [of impeachments], will seldom fail to agitate the passions of the whole community, and to divide it into parties more or less friendly or inimical to the accused. The subjects of its jurisdiction are those offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men, or, in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust, and they relate chiefly to injuries done immediately to the society itself.

Alexander Hamilton
Party, Passion, Men

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

Alexander Hamilton
Passion, May, Human Nature
Alexander Hamilton (1962). “Jan.1787-May 1788”

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.

Alexander Hamilton
Passion, Human Nature, Fit
Alexander Hamilton, Donald R. Hickey, Connie D. Clark (2006). “Citizen Hamilton: The Wit and Wisdom of an American Founder”, p.100, Rowman & Littlefield

Men are rather reasoning than reasonable animals for the most part governed by the impulse of passion. This is a truth well understood by our adversaries who have practised upon it with no small benefit to their cause. For at the very moment they are eulogizing the reason of men & professing to appeal only to that faculty, they are courting the strongest & most active passion of the human heart - VANITY!

Alexander Hamilton
Passion, Heart, Animal
Alexander Hamilton, John Church Hamilton (1851). “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.541

The experience of treaties being broken with impunity provide an afflicting lesson to mankind how little dependence is to be placed on treaties which have no other sanction than the obligations of good faith; and which oppose general considerations of peace and justice to the impulse of any immediate interest and passion.

Alexander Hamilton
Passion, Broken, Justice

The passions of a revolution are apt to hurry even good men into excesses.

Alexander Hamilton
Passion, Men, Good Man
Alexander Hamilton (1973). “Papers”

This position will not be disputed so long as it is admitted that the desire of reward is one of the strongest incentives of human conduct, or that the best security for the fidelity of mankind is to make their interest coincide with their duty. Even the love of fame, the ruling passion of the noblest minds... would on the contrary deter him from the undertaking, when he foresaw that he must quit the scene before he could accomplish the work.

Alexander Hamilton
Passion, Long, Mind
"The Federalist: A Commentary on the Constitution of the United States".

In all general questions which become the subjects of discussion, there are always some truths mixed with falsehoods. I confess, there is danger where men are capable of holding two offices. Take mankind in general, they are vicious, their passions may be operated upon. We have been taught to reprobate the danger of influence in the British government, without duly reflecting how far it was necessary to support a good government. We have taken up many ideas upon trust, and at last, pleased with our own opinions, establish them as undoubted truths.

Alexander Hamilton
Taken, Passion, Men
"The works of Alexander Hamilton".

The obscurity is much oftener in the passions and prejudices of the reasoner than in the subject.

Alexander Hamilton
Passion, Prejudice, Obscurity
"The Essential Federalist: A New Reading of the Federalist Papers".

What bitter anguish would not the people of Athens have often escaped if their government had contained so provident a safeguard against tyranny of their own passions? Popular liberty might then have escaped the indelible reproach of decreeing to the same citizens the hemlock on one day and statutes the next.

Alexander Hamilton
Passion, Government, People
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay, Henry Barton Dawson (1864). “The Fœderalist: A Collection of Essays, Written in Favor of the New Constitution, as Agreed Upon by the Fœderal Convention, September 17, 1787. Reprinted from the Original Text. With an Historical Introduction and Notes”, p.439, New York : C. Scribner ; London : Sampson Low

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