Please help me find this Alexander Hamilton quote (found!)

[jasc15]

It is something about the interactions/affairs of men being driven mostly by perceptions and feelings rather than by facts.

[El Barto]

Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of man will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.

In the general course of human nature, A power over a man's subsistence amounts to a power over his will.

He seems to have said quite a few such things. Personally, I like this one:

A well adjusted person is one who makes the same mistake twice without getting nervous.

[jasc15]

It's likely been rehashed many times over the years, but it's more like the first you quoted, without the gov't reference.  I read it in Ron Chernow's biography and I can't thumb through hundreds of pages to find it.

[millahh]

Looks like the man understood behavioral economics!

Love that first quote.

[jasc15]

Bump.

I think i found it:

Opinion, whether well or ill founded, is the governing principle of human affairs.

I didn't realize it was right in the front matter of the book.