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Alexander Hamilton
Aaron Burr is Hamilton’s nemesis and ideological opposite. He is also, in a structural move that immediately raises the stakes, the musical’s narrator, introducing audiences to Hamilton through his own vengeful eyes. Whereas Hamilton sees his own mortality as motivation to work harder, Burr’s knowledge of death causes him to bide his time and be patient: “I am the one thing in life I can control” (“Wait For It”). And while Hamilton is vocal about his strong opinions, Burr prefers to play both sides, singing that his motto is “talk less / smile more” (“Aaron Burr, Sir”). Though the two men are never close, during the Revolutionary War, they are able to work together, bonded by their shared status as orphans (though Burr grew up in wealth), and by their love of their newborn children (“Dear Theodosia”). After the war, Hamilton climbs the political ranks while Burr falls by the wayside, causing Burr to fume that he wants—above all else—to be in the “room where it happens.” Seeking revenge, Burr tries to tarnish Hamilton’s honor, threatening to expose his affair with Maria Reynolds (“We Know”). When Hamilton endorses Thomas Jefferson over Burr for the presidency, it is the final straw, and Burr challenges his lifelong enemy to a duel (“Your Obedient Servant”). Burr shoots and kills Hamilton, but he is aware that by doing so, he makes himself “the villain in [the audience’s] history”; though Hamilton may have lost his life, Burr has lost his legacy (“The World Was Wide Enough”).
Aaron Burr Quotes in Hamilton
The Hamilton quotes below are all either spoken by Aaron Burr or refer to Aaron Burr. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Act 1: Alexander Hamilton Quotes
BURR: There would have been nothing left to do for someone less astute,
He woulda been dead or destitute,
Without a cent of restitution,
Started workin’—clerkin’ for his late mother’s landlord,
Tradin’ sugar cane and rum and all the things he can’t afford
Scammin’ for every book he can get his hands on
Plannin’ for the future see him now as he stands on
The bow of a ship heading for a new land.
In New York you can be a new man.
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Act 1: Aaron Burr, Sir Quotes
BURR: Talk less.
HAMILTON: What?
BURR: Smile more.
HAMILTON: Ha.
BURR: Don’t let them know what you’re against or what you’re for.
HAMILTON: You can’t be serious.
BURR: You wanna get ahead?
HAMILTON: Yes.
BURR: Fools who run their mouths oft wind up dead.
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Act 1: Wait for It Quotes
BURR: Death doesn’t discriminate
Between the sinners and the saints,
It takes, and it takes, and it takes
And we keep living anyway.
We rise and we fall
And we break,
And we make our mistakes.
And if there’s a reason I’m still alive
When ev’ryone who loves me has died
I’m willing to wait for it.
I’m willing to wait for it.
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Act 1: Dear Theodosia Quotes
BURR: My father wasn’t around
HAMILTON: I swear that
BURR, HAMILTON: I’ll be around for you.
HAMILTON: I’ll do whatever it takes.
BURR: I’ll make a million mistakes.
BURR, HAMILTON: I’ll make the world safe and sound for you…
Will come of age with our young nation
We’ll bleed and fight for you, we’ll make it right for you.
If we lay a strong enough foundation
We’ll pass it on to you, we’ll give the world to you, and you’ll blow us all away….
Someday, someday
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Act 1: Non-Stop Quotes
BURR: The Constitution’s a mess.
HAMILTON: So it needs amendments.
BURR: It’s full of contradictions.
HAMILTON: So is independence.
We have to start somewhere.
BURR: No. No way.
HAMILTON: You’re making a mistake.
BURR: Goodnight.
HAMILTON: Hey.
What are you waiting for?
What do you stall for?
BURR: What?
HAMILTON: We won the war.
What was it all for?
Do you support the Constitution?
BURR: Of course.
HAMILTON: Then defend it.
BURR: And what if you’re backing the wrong horse?
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Act 2: The Room Where it Happens Quotes
HAMILTON, JEFFERSON, MADISON, WASHINGTON: What do you want, Burr?
What do you want, Burr?
If you stand for nothing,
Burr, what do you fall for?
BURR: I
Wanna be in
The room where it happens.
The room where it happens.
I
Wanna be in
The room where it happens.
The room where it happens.
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Act 2: Election of 1800 Quotes
HAMILTON: I have never agreed with Jefferson once.
We have fought on like seventy-five diff’rent fronts!
But when all is said and all is done.
Jefferson has beliefs. Burr has none.
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Act 2: The World Was Wide Enough Quotes
BURR: They won’t teach you this in your classes,
But look it up, Hamilton was wearing his glasses.
Why? If not to take deadly aim?
It’s him or me, the world will never be the same.
I had only one thought before the slaughter:
This man will not make an orphan of my daughter.
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HAMILTON: If I throw away my shot, is this how you remember me?
What if this bullet is my legacy?
Legacy. What is a legacy?
It’s planting seeds in a garden you never get to see.
I wrote some notes at the beginning of a song someone will sing for me.
America, you great unfinished symphony, you sent for me.
You let me make a difference.
A place where even orphan immigrants can leave their fingerprints and rise up.
I’m running out of time, I’m running and my time’s up. Wise up. Eyes up.
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Aaron Burr Character Timeline in Hamilton
The timeline below shows where the character Aaron Burr appears in Hamilton. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Act 1: Alexander Hamilton
Aaron Burr (with an assist from the rest of the company) marvels at how Alexander Hamilton, a...
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...introduces himself, explaining that “there’s a million things I haven’t done, but just you wait.” Burr sings about how Hamilton’s enemies (himself included) “destroyed his rep,” while the other major characters...
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Act 1: Aaron Burr, Sir
Hamilton has just arrived in New York, and he is eager to meet Aaron Burr, who graduated from Princeton in only two short years. Burr is put off by Hamilton’s...
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Sure enough, moments later Burr and Hamilton are joined by the three men who will become Hamilton’s closest friends: Laurens,...
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Act 1: Right Hand Man
As Washington figures out how to evade the British attack, Burr offers his help—but Washington declines. Instead, he turns to Hamilton, who initially is reluctant to...
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Act 1: A Winter’s Ball
Burr’s resentment of Hamilton’s rise and of his success with “the ladies” is growing. Still penniless,...
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Act 1: The Story of Tonight (Reprise)
Hamilton and his friends celebrate his new marriage with another round of drinks. Burr shows up halfway through the song, and the guys call him out on his crush...
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Act 1: Wait for It
Burr lusts for Theodosia and reflects on his own family history (his grandfather was famed preacher...
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Act 1: Ten Duel Commandments
To prepare for the duel, Burr, Hamilton, Laurens and the company lay out “The Ten Duel Commandments.” First, each party demands...
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Act 1: Dear Theodosia
As they sing “Dear Theodosia,” Burr and Hamilton connect the births of their respective children at the end of the Revolution...
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Act 1: Non-Stop
When Burr and Hamilton return from the war, both set up law practices in the same neighborhood...
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Without any melody or lyricism, Burr states the simple—and astonishing—facts. There were 85 essays in the Federalist papers, written over the...
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Act 2: The Room Where it Happens
Burr wonders how Hamilton is going to pass his new debt plan, and Hamilton explains that...
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...and Madison get the nation’s capital right in their backyard (Washington, D.C.). As trumpets play, Burr obsesses over the fact that “no one else was in the room where it happened.”
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Hamilton boasts to Burr that he has accomplished his goals. Hamilton presses Burr to think about what he stands...
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Act 2: Schuyler Defeated
...his race to be a senator from New York. Worse still, he’s been beaten by Burr, who changed parties to run against Philip.
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Act 2: Washington On Your Side
Jefferson, Madison, and Burr—all now part of the Democratic-Republican Party—express their frustration at Hamilton’s success. Jefferson sings “I’m in...
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Act 2: We Know
Jefferson, Burr, and Madison accuse Hamilton of using his role in the Treasury to embezzle money. Hamilton...
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Act 2: Hurricane
...in traumas like his mother’s death. He resolves to publish the story of Maria, while Burr gleefully chants to “wait for it.”
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Act 2: The Reynolds Pamphlet
...side”). King George also arrives to laugh at Hamilton. The song ends when Jefferson and Burr revel in Hamilton’s self-destruction: “you ever see somebody ruin their own life? / his poor...
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Act 2: Election of 1800
Sometime later, Hamilton must choose between voting for Jefferson or Burr in the 1800 presidential election. The song begins when Jefferson asks, “can we get back...
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Voters like Burr, gravitating toward him because he seems “like you could grab a beer with him!” But...
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Act 2: Your Obedient Servant
Burr looks back on his life and realizes that every time he has failed, Hamilton is...
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Act 2: The World Was Wide Enough
As they search for a spot for their duel, Burr and Hamilton cross the water to New Jersey; they are near the spot where Philip...
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...to seeing her in the afterlife. Then he points his gun at the sky, while Burr takes his shot, striking Hamilton in the ribs and killing him. To the tune of...
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