Ames Quotes & Sayings

Sanctification is the real change in man from the sordidness of sin to the purity of God's image. — William Ames

I have heard it remarked that men are not to be reasoned out of an opinion they have not reasoned themselves into. — Fisher Ames

I lay my tasks down one by one; I sit in the silence of twilight grace. Out of the shadows, deep and dun, Steals, like a star, my Baby's face ... I will take up my work once more, As if I had never laid it down. Who will dream that I ever wore, In triumph, motherhood's sacred crown? ... Nevertheless, the way is long, And tears leap up in the light of the sun. I'd give my world for a cradle-song, And a kiss from Baby?only one. — Mary C. Ames

I am part of a vast generation of people who perpetually live as if they just graduated from college. — Jonathan Ames

What more degrades woman today than that she so often seeks marriage as a support? Why is the holy sacrament of love, the sanctity of the family state, so often prostituted and destroyed, but because marriage is entered upon as a necessity or a convenience? And what can so place marriage on its only true basis of mutual love, mutual fitness, mutual esteem, as for woman to make herself independent of it as a mere means of subsistence? — Mary C. Ames

The attributes of God tell us what He is and who He is. — William Ames

The good pleasure of God is an act of the divine will freely and effectively determining all things. — William Ames

There's no shortage of material in life. — Jonathan Ames

I don't mind being ridiculed - well, I guess I would mind a little, but it would only last a few minutes - it's all very ephemeral; it doesn't really matter what people think of me. — Jonathan Ames

I've always been inspired by Don Quixote as a role model of sorts, of the power of books to sort of make you insane in maybe a beautiful way. — Jonathan Ames

My little scam in April '85 went like this: Give me $50,000; here's some names of some people we've recruited. — Aldrich Ames

Unfortunately, I'm one of those idiots who knows everything about health and is in a constant state of alarm, and yet I continue to do everything I shouldn't do. — Jonathan 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 the influence all these produce on public opinion before that opinion governs rulers. — Fisher Ames

My beauty doesn't lie between my thighs. — Tracy Ames

Deciding whether to trust or credit a person is always an uncertain task. — Aldrich Ames

Folic acid deficiency does the same thing as radiation. — Bruce Ames

The virtue of contentment is the acquiescence of the mind in the lot God has given — William Ames

Let's say a Soviet exchange student back in the '70s would go back and tell the KGB about people and places and things that he'd seen and done and been involved with. This is not really espionage; there's no betrayal of trust. — Aldrich Ames

The goodness of a thing created is the perfection of its fitness for the use which it serves. Now that use is either particular or universal. — William 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

We are, heart and soul, friends to the freedom of the press ... It is a precious pest, and a necessary mischief, and there would be no liberty without it. — Fisher Ames

[Why] 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

The House is composed of very good men, not shining, but honest and reasonably well-informed, and in time will be found to improve, and not 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

The world has not been in existence from eternity nor could it have been according to the present dispensation and ordering of things. — William Ames

C" is for colonies
Rightly we boast
that of all the great nations
Great Britain has most! — Mrs. Ernest Ames

The resistance of policy-makers to intelligence is not just founded on an ideological presupposition. They distrust intelligence sources and intelligence officials because they don't understand what the real problems are. — Aldrich Ames

That had been David's motto apparently. He'd never even suggested Jeremy try S&M or B&D or LMNOP. Whatever the hell it was called. Good thing, he supposed, since while he was all about "whatever floats your boat," he was certainly vanilla in the sex department; maybe butterscotch ripple, but definitely not rocky road — Tam Ames

The effort to eliminate synthetic pesticides because of unsubstantiated fears about residues in food will make fruits and vegetables more expensive, decrease consumption, and thus increase cancer rates. The levels of synthetic pesticide residues are trivial in comparison to natural chemicals, and thus their potential for cancer causation is extremely low. [Ames believes that "to eat your veggies" is the best way to prevent cancer.] — Bruce Ames

The relative property of the Son is to be begotten, that is, so to proceed from the Father as to be a participant of the same essence and perfectly carry on the Father's nature. — William Ames

I found that our Soviet espionage efforts had virtually never, or had very seldom, produced any worthwhile political or economic intelligence on the Soviet Union. — Aldrich Ames

For me, the past is dead. Can't go back. — Jonathan Ames

From faith, hope, and love, the virtues of religion referring to God, there arises a double act which bears on the spiritual communion exercised between God and us; the hearing of the word and prayer. — William Ames

I started puberty very late. I was nearly sixteen. And for complicated reasons this late arrival of my puberty caused me to stop playing competitive tennis. But before my puberty problem, I had trouble with my lower back and with my left testicle. — Jonathan Ames

Don't hold me to anything in the book. I'm a waffler. I like wafflers. They said John Kerry was a waffler, but I admired him for that - showed he could change his mind. — Jonathan Ames

I don't have ADD, but I only like to pay attention to the things I like to pay attention to, and things like getting a TV and getting the cable working are beyond me, and so I let such things lapse, sometimes for years. This applies to keeping my apartment clean. — Jonathan Ames

Hence the end of the world should be awaited with all longing by all believers. — William Ames

Today the manliest man would be ashamed to look into the eyes of the woman by his side and tell her that he is the master because he could knock her down with perfect ease, and break her bones with much greater facility than she could his. And yet, out of man's brute nature, out of that most ignoble in himself, has come his loudest assumption of superiority, his longest and lowest tyranny. — Mary C. Ames

To the extent that I considered the personal burden of harming the people who had trusted me, plus the Agency, or the United States, I wasn't processing that. — Aldrich Ames

Almost all the world is natural chemicals, so it really makes you re-think everything. A cup of coffee is filled with chemicals. They've identified a thousand chemicals in a cup of coffee. But we only found 22 that have been tested in animal cancer tests out of this thousand. And of those, 17 are carcinogens. There are ten milligrams of known carcinogens in a cup of coffee and thats more carcinogens than you're likely to get from pesticide residues for a year! — Bruce Ames

My friend Wicker once said to be careful what and how you say what you're really thinking to a woman. After much screwing up in that department with Emma, I've learned it's not what you should hide, but what you say that makes her react the way she does. If I am unable to make myself clear, as I so often do, it's more likely going to go to pot if I try to explain how I really feel. Instead, I rework in my brain what she needs to hear. I don't always nail it, but I'm getting better at it. And it's always the truth even if it isn't how I see it.
Is it deceiving? No. It's being considerate and aware that she is an emotional creature, and that for some crazy reason, craves my attention. I love to make her happy. My jumbled up mess of a mind isn't important in the long run if it just confuses her. So I chose words carefully. When something goes right, I use it over and over again. -Ames — Cyndi Goodgame

It was one of those days when every time I went to go out the door, something grabbed me in the back of the brain and said, lie down and masturbate one more time. — Jonathan Ames

A government by the passions of the multitude, or, no less correctly, according to the vices, and ambitions of their leaders is a democracy. — Fisher Ames

I drink coffee. Without coffee, I probably couldn't write. — Jonathan Ames

Hearing the word is the devout receiving of the will of God. — William Ames

When I was a kid, I loved having a book in my hand. I still do. I wasn't a fast reader, but I was a steady reader. I read all of The Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew, and Cherry Ames books. — Rhea Perlman

A dog does not live as long as a man and this natural law is the fount of many tears. If boy and puppy might grow to manhood and doghood together, and together grow old, and so in due course die, full many a heartache might be avoided. But the world is not so ordered, and dogs will die and men will weep for them so long as there are dogs and men. — Ben Ames Williams

[N]ames were what you wore forever, and she felt that she'd sent her daughters out in tacky rabbit fur coats when they should have been wrapped in mink. — Sheri Holman

This subsistence, or manner of being of God is his one essence so far as it has personal properties. — William Ames

I know I experience great consolation when my mouth is between a woman's legs. I think it must be because I'm drinking in her happiness. — Jonathan Ames

No one I interact with - except maybe for family and strangers at the Russian baths and other weird places I may go to - is just friends or lovers with me: they also know something of my writing and this distorts their take on me — Jonathan Ames

[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

The will of God is eternal because He does not begin to will what He did not will before, nor cease to will what He willed before. — William Ames

You won't shoot nine under unless you birdie the first two or three holes. You just start firing at everything. — Stephen Ames

Anyway, what do women grab when they're nervous and sitting at their desks? Do they slip their hands inside their panties? What a distracting thought. Just the word panty is distracting. I love that word; it implies so much. I love how women look in panties, how they're flat in the front. I'm thirty-five, but sometimes it's still this beautiful amazing shock to me that women don't have penises. They just have this lovely little mound of hair and then this tucked away glorious hole. Hole. Wait. Hole sounds vulgar. Is passageway better? Pretty envelope? Georgia O'Keeffe flower? Pussy? Pussy is good. I like the word pussy. Tucked away beautiful pussy. I wish I could put my face in one right now and sing out, I love you! — Jonathan Ames

I said in court a long time ago that I didn't see that the Soviet Union was significantly helped by the information I gave them, nor that the United States was significantly harmed. — Aldrich Ames

I once worked at a record label called London Records. The company was owned by Roger Ames, one of the most successful figures in the British music industry. Roger always placed a value on loafing, on holidays, on not being in the office all the time. — John Niven

Everyone who understands the nature of God rightly necessarily knows that God is to be believed and hoped in, that he is to be loved and called upon, and to be heard in all things. — William Ames

Oh, God, I don't know what's more difficult, life or the English language. — Jonathan Ames

Nothing exists from eternity but God, and God is not the matter or a part of any creature, but only the maker. — William Ames

It is home. The Twin Cities are home and [Ames] is home. It's definitely always a place that's going to be very special to me. — Royce White

You have to have a very well-balanced life to be able to perform very well. — Stephen Ames

The human spy, in terms of the American espionage effort, had never been terribly pertinent. — Aldrich Ames

I am always the source of the worst rumors about myself. — Jonathan Ames

The first act of religion, therefore, concerns those things which are communicated to us from God. The other concerns those things which we yield to God. — William Ames

I didn't think I was in a morbid mood, but it appears I am. My mind goes round and round trying to figure things out, but I always come back to the same two things: Loneliness and Death. Life ends before we figure anything out, most importantly how not to be lonely. Solitude is fine. But feeling like you have no one to love - abject lonliness - is not alright. — Jonathan Ames

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, but then your feet are always in the water. — Fisher Ames

I didn't play or like a lot of board games as a child. I liked playing with my G.I. Joes and making up adventures for them. — Jonathan Ames

Hamilton wanted to lead the electorate and provide expert opinion instead of consulting popular opinion. He took tough, uncompromising stands and gloried in abstruse ideas in a political culture that pined for greater simplicity. Alexander Hamilton triumphed as a doer and thinker, not as a leader of the average voter. He was simply too unashamedly brainy to appeal to the masses. Fisher Ames observed of Hamilton that the common people don't want leaders 'whom they see elevated by nature and education so far above their heads. — Ron Chernow

Recently, I've discovered Radiohead and find them to be quite good. So clearly, I'm some kind of musical retard. (Jonathan Ames, Middle-American Gothic) — Dave Eggers

Would you like me to write Mrs. Ames about inviting you to Yaddo? Get Miss Moore to write too. You can't invite yourself, though, of course, almost all the invitations are planned. It would be marvelous to have you there. I know the solitude that gets too much. It doesn't drug me, but I get fantastic and uncivilized.
At last my divorce [from Jean Stafford] is over. It's funny at my age to have one's life so much in and on one's hands. All the rawness of learning, what I used to think should be done with by twenty-five. Sometimes nothing is so solid to me as writing - I suppose that's what vocation means - at times a torment, a bad conscience, but all in all, purpose and direction, so I'm thankful, and call it good, as Eliot would say. — Robert Lowell

America is rising with a giant's strength. Its bones are yet but cartilages. — Fisher Ames

An espionage organization is a collector: it collects raw information. That gets processed by a machinery that is supposed to resolve its reliability, and to present a finished product. — Aldrich Ames

True, but love is a strange mystery that no one has been able to solve. — John H. Ames

I need to stay in the present and use that new-age mantra: 'I'm okay right now.' But I worry about all the things I'm failing at every moment. — Jonathan Ames

Democracy, in its best state, is but the politics of Bedlam; while kept chained, its thoughts are frantic, but when it breaks loose, it kills the keeper, fires the building, and perishes. — Fisher Ames

I don't like to publicly acknowledge being a Jew. — Jonathan Ames

The national security state has many unfair and cruel weapons in its arsenal, but that of junk science is one which can be fought and perhaps defeated. — Aldrich Ames

Essentially I'm a pantheist-agnostic. I worship many deities with equal amounts of confusion. — Jonathan Ames

To serve thy generation, this thy fate: "Written in water," swiftly fades thy name; But he who loves his kind does, first and late, A work too late for fame. — Mary C. Ames

If I don't eat veggies with a meal, I feel deprived. — Bruce Ames

There are so many talented young writers named Jonathan, with whom by comparison I suffer terribly. — Jonathan Ames

Insightful and heartbreaking, but also wonderfully comedic in its gutsy honesty. A beautiful and powerful memoir. — Jonathan Ames

We have a dangerous trend beginning to take place in our education. We're starting to put more and more textbooks into our schools. We've become accustomed of late of putting little books into the hands of children, containing fables and moral lessons. We're spending less time in the classroom on the Bible, which should be the principal text in our schools. The Bible states these great moral lessons better than any other man-made book. — Fisher Ames

In the exercise of God's efficiency, the decree of God comes first. This manner of working is the most perfect of all and notably agrees with the divine nature. — William Ames

So, I guess it's true what they say, beauty and brains don't always go together."
Crow smiled.
"Did you just call me dumb, but ridiculously good-looking? — John H. Ames

I really should not be so willing to interpret my own books as I seem to be this evening. But the blessing Ames gives Jack is an act of recognition that blesses Ames, too. He is profoundly moved that he has had the occasion to do it, that Jack accepted it, wanted it. I really do believe that all blessing is mutual, and that the moment of blessing is when people rise to the very beautiful seriousness of what they are. I feel that we ought to value ourselves and one another far more than we do, and I'm speaking theologically here, but also with an awareness that always haunts me, that we are the wonder of the universe, incomparably complex, brilliant, poignant - and perverse, of course. Our own overwhelming problem. But there are good grounds for awe in any human encounter. If we came anywhere near respecting the richness of this improbable life - hopes would flourish and blossom as they have never done before. — Marilynne Robinson

I might have some sort of personality disorder. I might not have proper filters; it might be some kind of version of Asperger's meets Tourettes meets prose. — Jonathan Ames

It's not easy taking care of one's self, determining nap lengths and all that, but with two people it's a manageable job. — Jonathan Ames

Only now, on the other side of his success, Bruce had come to understand what time and experience can do to the most closely held dreams. The point in your late twenties when you're grown up enough to realize that 'life is no longer wide open'. — Peter Ames Carlin

I wondered where the person was who had taken my place, who wanted to know what news people had been told. I'm always looking for the person who replaces me, who thinks the things I do, who fills in for me when I'm not there. I know there is someone younger than me doing what I did and someone older doing what I will do, and someone my age being just like me. — Jonathan Ames

Participation in the blessings of the union with Christ comes when the faithful have all the things needed to live well and blessedly to God. — William Ames

I'm actually much more shy and self-conscious than people's perception of me. — Jonathan Ames

Active creation is conceived as a transitive action in which there is always presupposed an object about which the agent is concerned; it is virtually but not formally transitive because it makes, not presupposes, an object. — William Ames

In contentment and joy are found the height and perfection of all love towards our neighbor. — William Ames

I wish I was the kind of writer who would go to a war zone and write about something that's meaningful and important to people, but that's not my area of coverage. — Jonathan Ames

While women's suffrage has not brought about the political millennium which its fondest backers predicted, its effects on the whole have been decidely beneficial. — Jessie Daniel Ames

It's hard for me to think of writing a novel, because it takes so long. — Jonathan Ames

I live for coincidences. They briefly give to me the illusion or the hope that there's a pattern to my life, and if there's a pattern, then maybe I'm moving toward some kind of destiny where it's all explained. — Jonathan Ames

All such men are, or ought to be, agreed, that simple governments are despotisms; and of all despotisms, a democracy, though the least durable, is the most violent. — Fisher Ames

No, I'm not very productive at all. I'm probably like an animal. I mean, great animals in the ocean feed all the time. I'm someone who procrastinates, worries, for most of a month, and then I'll have a flurry of manic productivity with a sense of great urgency and fear for, like, two days. — Jonathan Ames