Arbitrary Quote by Fisher Ames

There is something very unnatural and odious in a government a thousand leagues off. A whole government of our own choice, managed by persons…

— John Adams

“From this view of the subject it may be concluded that a pure democracy, by which I mean a society consisting of a small…

— James Madison

Democracy encourages a taste for physical gratification; this taste, if it becomes excessive, soon disposes men to believe that all is matter only; and…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

[In a democracy] a common passion or interest will, in almost every case , be felt by a majority of the whole; a communication…

— James Madison

“Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. Men have a right that these wants should be provided for by…

— Edmund Burke

“I do not say that democracy has been more pernicious on the whole, and in the long run, than monarchy or aristocracy. Democracy has…

— John Adams

Successful democratic politicians are insecure and intimidated men. They advance politically only as they placate, appease, bribe, seduce, bamboozle, or otherwise manage to manipulate…

— Walter Lippmann

“on Democracies: "there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party or an obnoxious individual. Hence it is that such democracies…

— James Madison

Sooner or later a democracy which is to survive has to be able to rely upon that enlargement of vision and purpose of those…

— Ordway Tead

All such men are, or ought to be, agreed, that simple governments are despotisms; and of all despotisms, a democracy, though the least durable,…

— Fisher Ames

Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It…

— John Adams

I believe that the will of the people is resolved by a strong leadership. Even in a democratic society, events depend on a strong…

— Yitzhak Shamir