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Fisher Ames
9 quotes
“The House is composed of very good men, not shining, but honest and reasonably well-informed, and in time they will be found to improve, and not to be much inferior in eloquence, science, and dignity, to the British Commons. They are patriotic enough, and I believe there are more stupid (as well as more shining) people in the latter, in proportion.”
Fisher Ames (1758–1808) first seen 1789 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to George Richard Minot (May 27, 1789); reported in Works of Fisher Ames (1854), ed. Seth Ames, vol. 1, p. 45.
“I consider biennial elections as a security that the sober, second thought of the people shall be law.”
Fisher Ames (1758–1808) first seen 1788 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech on Biennial Elections before the Convention of Massachusetts (January 1788), reported in Seth Ames, John Thornton Kirkland, Works of Fisher Ames with a Selection from His Speeches and Correspondence (1854) p. 7.
“Madison has inserted in his amendments the increase of representatives, each State having two at least. The rights of conscience, of bearing arms, of changing the government, are declared to be inherent in the people. Freedom of the press too. There is a prodigious great dose for a medicine. But it will stimulate the stomach as little as hasty pudding. It is rather food for physic. An immense mass of sweet and other herbs and roots for diet drink.”
Fisher Ames (1758–1808) first seen 1789 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to F.R. Minoe, June 12, 1789, reported in Life and Work of Fisher Ames, vol. I, 52-54.
“[The framers of the Constitution] “intended our government should be a republic, which differs more widely from a democracy than a democracy from a despotism.”
Fisher Ames (1758–1808) first seen 1805 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In an 1805 essay titled "Mires of Democracy.
“The gentleman puts me in mind of an old hen which persists in setting after her eggs are taken away.”
Fisher Ames (1758–1808) said by 1808 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reported in Memoirs of Theophilus Parsons (1859). Ames is reported to have said this while opposing Parsons as counsel in a legal case.
“The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness, which the ambitious call, and the ignorant believe to be, liberty.”
Fisher Ames (1758–1808) first seen 1805 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Dangers of American Liberty (1805), in
“Liberty has never yet lasted long in a democracy; nor has it ever ended in any thing better than despotism.”
Fisher Ames (1758–1808) first seen 1805 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: American Literature (1805), in
“The rights of conscience, of bearing arms, of changing the government, are declared to be inherent in the people. Freedom of the press, too.”
Fisher Ames (1758–1808) first seen 1789 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to George Richards Minot (June 12, 1789), reported in Fisher Ames, Seth Ames, John Thornton Kirkland, Works of Fisher Ames: With a Selection from His Speeches and Correspondence (1854), p. 54.
“Why then, if these books for children must be retained, as they will be, should not the bible regain the place it once held as a school book ? Its morals are pure, its examples captivating and noble. The reverence for the sacred book, that is thus early impressed, lasts long; and, probably, if not impressed in infancy, never takes firm hold of the mind.”
Fisher Ames (1758–1808) first seen 1801 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Published in Palladium (January 1801), reported in Fisher Ames, John Thornton Kirkland, Works of Fisher Ames (1809), p. 134-35.