Neither love nor evil conquers all, but evil cheats more.

Hamilton’s line undercuts the comforting cliché that “love conquers all” by pairing it with its dark mirror—“evil conquers all”—and rejecting both as simplistic. The second clause suggests a more cynical realism: outcomes are not determined by moral absolutes but by tactics, and evil often appears to “win” because it is willing to lie, manipulate, and break rules that love (or ordinary decency) will not. The quote thus frames moral struggle as asymmetrical: goodness may be constrained by conscience, while evil exploits loopholes and human weakness. It’s a warning against naïveté and a call to recognize that ethical action may require vigilance and strategy, not just faith in virtue’s inevitability.