Quotes from Ron Chernow

Finally, he flung his hat on the ground in disgust and fumed, "Are these the men with whom I am to defend America?

If those who 'gain all they can' and 'save all they can,' will likewise 'give all they can,' then the more they will grow in grace.

regarding Charles Lee) This eccentric and notably slovenly man was always trailed by his beloved dogs. When I can be convinced that men are as worthy objects as dogs, he once explained, I shall transfer my benevolence to them.

With a ready tongue and rapier wit, Hamilton could wound people more than he realized, and he was so nimble in debate that even bright people sometimes felt embarrassingly tongue-tied in his presence.

A romantic striving for an impossible ideal.

Again and again in his career, Hamilton committed the same political error: he never knew when to stop, and the resulting excesses led him into irremediable indiscretions.

The suspect nature of these stories can be seen in the anecdote Jefferson told of Hamilton visiting his lodging in 1792 and inquiring about three portraits on the wall. "They are my trinity of the three greatest men the world has ever produced," Jefferson replied: "Sir Francis Bacon, Sir Isaac Newton, and John Locke." Hamilton supposedly replied, "The greatest man that ever lived was Julius Casar.

Since critics found it hard to defeat him on intellectual grounds, they stooped to personal attacks.

The task of government was not to stop selfish striving—a hopeless task—but to harness it for the public good.

If he had wanted to impose a monarchy upon America, Hamilton said, he would follow the classic path of a populist demagogue: "I would mount the hobbyhorse of popularity, I would cry out usurpation, danger to liberty etc. etc. I would endeavour to prostrate the national government, raise a ferment, and then ride in the whirlwind and direct the storm.

it is a maxim founded on the universal experience of mankind that no nation is to be trusted farther than it is bound by its interest.

I think that we Americans, at least in the Southern col[onie]s, cannot contend with a good grace for liberty until we shall have enfranchised our slaves," Laurens told a friend right before the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Both Hamilton and Jefferson believed in democracy, but Hamilton tended to be more suspicious of the governed and Jefferson of the governors.

Hamilton's relatively short life robbed him not only of any chance for further accomplishment but of the opportunity to mold his historical image.

Light reading (by this, I mean books of little importance) may amuse for the moment, but leaves nothing solid behind.

He thought America's character would be defined by how it treated its vanquished enemies, and he wanted to graduate from bitter wartime grievances to the forgiving posture of peace.

Washington quibbled with Hamilton on one or two points but otherwise stood in perfect agreement. His letter to Hamilton again corroborates what the Jeffersonians found difficult to credit: that Washington never shied away from differing with the redoubtable Hamilton but agreed with him on the vast majority of issues.

The prolific Hamilton was now writing pseudonymous commentaries on his own pseudonymous essays.

Abigail Adams, who did not set sail until November, seemed miffed by the enforced southward shift, swearing that she would try to enjoy Philadelphia but that "when all is done it will not be Broadway.

Cornwallis had grown so desperate that he infected blacks with smallpox and forced them to wander toward enemy lines in an attempt to sicken the opposing forces.

The truth is I am an unlucky honest man that speaks my sentiments to all and with emphasis.

Because Conway persisted in maligning Washington, he was summoned to the dueling ground by General John Cadwalader, who fired a ball through Conway's mouth that came out the back of his head. Cadwalader showed no regret. "I have stopped the damned rascal's lying tongue at any rate," he observed as his opponent lay in agony on the ground.

Both as a matter of temperament and policy, Washington was taciturn, once advising his adopted grandson, "It is best to be silent, for there is nothing more certain than that it is at all times more easy to make enemies than friends.

Noah Webster contended that Hamilton's "ambition, pride, and overbearing temper" had destined him "to be the evil genius of this country.