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.
The whole life of the individual is nothing but the process of giving birth to himself; indeed, we should be fully born when we die.
It's hard for me to get interested in stories that ignore death, which is what American marketing culture would like to do: pretend that death doesn't exist, that you can buy immortality; just buy these products, and you'll be forever young and happy.
Some recent philosophers seem to have given their moral approval to these deplorable verdicts that affirm that the intelligence of an individual is a fixed quantity, a quantity that cannot be augmented. We must protest and react against this brutal pessimism; we will try to demonstrate that it is founded on nothing.
There is no detachment where there is no pain. And there is no pain endured without hatred or lying unless detachment is present too.
Patriotic feelings will surely swell, prompting proud proclamations of the wisdom, foresight, and sense of justice shared by the Framers and reflected in a written document now yellowed with age . . . [F]or many Americans the bicentennial celebration will be little more than a blind pilgrimage to the shrine of the original document now stored in a vault in the National Archives. [Progressive]
If I would follow your advice and Jesus could perceive it, he, as a Jewish teacher, surely would not approve of such behavior.
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