A monarchy is a merchantman which sails well, but will sometimes strike on a rock, and go to the bottom; a republic is a raft which will never sink, …

- Fisher Ames

No man can be a sound lawyer in this land who is not well read in the ethics of Moses and the virtues of Jesus.

- Fisher Ames

No one ever became, or can become truly eloquent without being a reader of the Bible, and an admirer of the purity and sublimity of its language.

- Fisher Ames

A large portion of our citizens, who will not believe, even on the evidence of facts, that any public evils exist, or are impending. They deride the …

- Fisher Ames

A democracy is a volcano which conceals the fiery materials of its own destruction. These will produce an eruption and carry desolation in their way.

- Fisher Ames

The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness which the ambitious call, and ignorant believe to be liberty.

- Fisher Ames

The rights of conscience, of bearing arms, of changing the government, are declared to be inherent in the people.

- Fisher Ames

The people as a body cannot deliberate. Nevertheless, they will feel an irresistible impulse to act, and their resolutions will be dictated to them b…

- Fisher Ames

Our liberty depends on our education, our laws, and habits . . . it is founded on morals and religion, whose authority reigns in the heart, and on th…

- Fisher Ames