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About this quote

What does it mean?
A nation loses its greatness when it forgets the legacy and sacrifices of its past.
In plain terms
Forgetfulness leads to a loss of national greatness.
What can you take from it?
Remember history to maintain greatness.

Where it applies

  • patriotic education
  • museum curation
  • national holidays

Putting it to work

  • teach national history
  • preserve monuments

Questions to consider

  • What must we remember to stay strong?
  • Does honoring the past hold us back?

Another view

Remembering the past should not prevent necessary progress.

More from Alexander Hamilton

  1. He stands at the front rank of a generation never surpassed in history, but whose countrymen seem to have never duly recognized his splendid gifts.

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  2. Hamilton was the greatest constructive mind in all our history and I should come pretty near saying... in the history of modern statesmen in any country.

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  3. Hamilton, the most brilliant American statesman who ever lived, possessing the loftiest and keenest intellect of his time, was of course easily the foremost ch…

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