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

- 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

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

The gentleman puts me in mind of an old hen which persists in setting after her eggs are taken away.

- Fisher Ames