The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge right or make good decision.
Interpretation
People are often inconsistent and make poor choices due to their nature.
In this quote, Alexander Hamilton reflects on the unpredictable nature of the populace, suggesting that because people can be easily swayed and are often driven by emotions rather than reason, they may struggle to make sound judgments. This highlights the inherent challenges in governance and leadership, as decisions made in the heat of the moment may not always lead to the best outcomes for society.
In practice
During a debate on societal reforms, one could cite this quote to emphasize the challenges of public opinion.
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 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.
Good and wise men, in all ages, have embraced a very dissimilar theory. They have supposed that the deity, from the relations we stand in to himself and to each other, has constituted an eternal and immutable law, which is indispensably obligatory upon all mankind, prior to any human institution whatever. This is what is called the law of nature....Upon this law depend the natural rights of mankind.
The first and last lesson of religion is, "The things that are seen, are temporal; the things that are unseen, are eternal." It puts an affront upon nature.
You know, children philosophize more than adults - and they are critical of adults.
Isn't it too bad that the great truths are all such lies.
Alienation as our present destiny is achieved only by outrageous violence perpetrated by human beings on human beings.
Outside speech, the association that is made in the memory between words having something in common creates different groups, series, families, within which very diverse relations obtain but belonging to a single category: these are associative relations.
The Lord is in me, the Lord is in you,as life is in every seed, put false pride away and seek the Lord within.
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