Fisher Ames Quotes

Political freedom, as the Western world has known it, is only a political reading of the Bible.

If you do not force political freedom, economic freedom will be stymied sooner or later.

If dictatorship is the concentration of power, freedom consists in its diffusion.

I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.

Freedom is indivisible. As soon as one starts to restrict it, one enters upon a decline on which it is difficult to stop.

Our liberty cannot depend on the good intention of those in power.

Liberal constitutional democracy is supposed to ensure that each citizen is free and equal and protected by basic rights and liberties.

Ultimately freedom is necessary for a society, because every despotic society - for instance, the Russian society - lives on the basis of a rather implausible dogma - the Marxist dogma of world redemption through Communism.

We can't impose freedom, but we can eliminate roadblocks to freedom, and to allow free societies to develop.

Liberty... is there only when there is no abuse of power.

That the greatest security of the people, against the encroachments and usurpations of their superiors, is to keep the Spirit of Liberty constantly awake, is an undeniable truth

I call government that works the best for people open society, which is basically just another more general term for a democracy that is - you call it maybe a liberal democracy. It's not only majority rule but also respect for minorities and minority opinions and the rule of law. So it's really a sort of institutional democracy.

This excessive licence, which the anarchists think is the only true freedom, provides the stock, as it were, from which a tyrant grows.

The degree of a country's freedom is the degree of its prosperity.

If a nation wishes, it can have both free elections and slavery.

Democracy is not the law of the majority but the protection of the minority.

The question in brief, is whether democracy and freedom are values to be preserved or threats to be avoided . . . democracy and freedom are more than values to be treasured; they may well be essential to survival.

Being democratic is not enough, a majority cannot turn what is wrong into right. In order to be considered truly free, countries must also have a deep love of liberty and an abiding respect for the rule of law.

In the long and dogged crusade that the human race has fought in favor of democracy, the ideal of liberty, of freedom, has always been the goal.

What Tunisia urgently needs, is freedom and the building of a real democracy.

Liberty and democracy are eternal enemies, and every one knows it who has ever given any sober reflection to the matter.

Without democracy freedom is a chimera

Also, when you escape a Communist regime, you treasure liberty and you understand that as government and state expand, liberty must contract.

Anywhere, anytime ordinary people are given the chance to choose, the choice is the same: freedom, not tyranny; democracy, not dictatorship; the rule of law, not the rule of the secret police.

A good constitution is infinitely better than the best despot.