Alexander Hamilton Quotes

I almost forgot what it's like to be proud of my government.

I applaud anyone who wants to take on the load that comes with being President of the United States. You really have to love your country to place yourself in that position.

For me, the definition of a patriot is someone who is willing to constantly question the government; that's what separates us from other countries.

The small elite of federal civil servants and politicians made Confederation work by acting as if the whole country was as virtuous and as they.

The best results in the operation of a government wherein every citizen has a share largely depend upon a proper limitation of purely partisan zeal and effort and a correct appreciation of the time when the heat of the partisan should be merged in the patriotism of the citizen.

The petition shall set forth that he is not a disbeliever in or opposed to organized government, or a member of or affiliated with any organization or body of persons teaching disbelief in or opposed to organized government, a polygamist or believer in the practice of polygamy, and that it is his intention to become a citizen of the United States and to renounce absolutely and forever all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty

The function of government is to direct the physical and moral powers of the nation toward the end for which the commonwealth has come into being.

If I don’t get elected? Great. The Republic will live on

The making of an American begins at that point where he himself rejects all other ties, any other history, and adopts the vesture of his adopted land.

We receive from America the right to vote as Americans, for America's weal, and if we cannot use our privilege as Americans we should surrender it.

Our naturalization and immigration laws should be further improved to the constant promotion of a safer, a better, and a higher citizenship. A grave peril to the Republic would be a citizenship too ignorant to understand or too vicious to appreciate the great value and beneficence of our institutions and laws, and against all who come here to make war upon them our gates must be promptly and tightly closed.

Healthy skepticism is necessary to the continuation of our democracy. When it turns to paranoia, it becomes destructive. American history has alternated between the two .... A nation where cynicism toward government prevails cannot function effectively.

We believe in American government, and we fully expect that those who now denigrate it, and even despise it, will soon or late find themselves turning to it in necessity, even desperation.

I wish to be no less than national in all the positions I may take.

Ours is the only government under heaven where liberty can, in truth, be said to dwell; and the numberless advantages of such a government, for moral, religious, and intellectual improvement, may be learnt from the prosperous state of our country since the time she assumed her just and proper station among the nations of the earth.

Because all of us believe that our democratic form of government can cope adequately with modern problems as they arise, it is patriotic as well as logical for us to prove that we can meet new national needs with new laws consistent with a historic constitutional framework clearly intended to receive liberal and not narrow interpretation.

The ruling authority is liable to raise a claim which could justify a deviation from the law by saying: The law is supposed to serve the country. The law is merely one consideration, there are additional considerations which are no less important; the good of the country is one such consideration and it could possibly override the law….this is a very dangerous claim. The saying that patriotism is the last refuge of the charlatan is well known. This argument, taken alone, is liable to topple the principle of the legality of government and the rule of law together with it.

To become an American is a process which resembles a conversion. It is not so much a new country that one adopts as a new creed.

An actual residence of such a length of time as would give a man an opportunity of esteeming the Government from knowing its intrinsic value, was essentially necessary to assure us of a man’s becoming a good citizen.

The American Government will be what we all make of it.

I serve a nation, not a party or a person. Nor to any branch of government.

It was a really big deal to become an American citizen the right way. You have to work really hard, and it is such an honor to be able to say that.

I wanted to participate in the political responsibilities of an American citizen. I wanted to vote. I wanted to be a full member of the American community. I made America my home country. It's my identity in many ways.

How does it become a man to behave towards the American government today? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it.

Whatever we do from government, we need to do what's best for America. If we do that, that's bringing power back to the people.