The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.
Interpretation
Hamilton emphasizes the importance of individuals being well-prepared and equipped.
In this quote, Alexander Hamilton reflects on the necessity of ensuring that the general public is adequately equipped or prepared, particularly in the context of safety and defense. He suggests that while we may not always control the nature of the people, providing them with the right tools or means is crucial for a stable and secure society. This highlights a belief in empowerment through proper arming, which can be interpreted both literally and metaphorically regarding knowledge, skills, and rights.
In practice
In a discussion about community safety, one might reference Hamilton's quote to emphasize the importance of preparedness.
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.
The tendency of a national bank is to increase public and private credit. The former gives power to the state, for the protection of its rights and interests: and the latter facilitates and extends the operations of commerce among individuals. Industry is increased, commodities are multiplied, agriculture and manufacturers flourish: and herein consists the true wealth and prosperity of a state.
It's not tyranny we desire; it's a just, limited, federal government.
The Achaeans soon experienced, as often happens, that a victorious and powerful ally is but another name for a master.
The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge right or make good decision.
The true principle of a republic is that the people should choose whom they please to govern them. Representation is imperfect, in proportion as the current of popular favor is checked. The great source of free government, popular election, should be perfectly pure, and the most unbounded liberty allowed.
'Useful,' and 'necessity' was always 'the tyrant's plea'.
When a human being takes his life in depression, this is a natural death of spiritual causes. The modern barbarity of 'saving' the suicidal is based on a hair-raising misapprehension of the nature of existence.
War is in fact the true nurse of executive aggrandizement
For mine own part, it was Greek to me.
Whether talking about addiction, taxation [on cigarettes] or education [about smoking], there is always at the center of the conversation an essential conundrum: How come we're selling this deadly stuff anyway?
Modern Darwinism makes it abundantly clear that many less ruthless traits, some not always admired by robber barons and Fuhrers - altruism, general intelligence, compassion - may be the key to survival.
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