Alexis de Tocqueville
sitemanagerThe American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.
Alexis de Tocqueville
We succeed in enterprises which demand the positive qualities we possess, but we excel in those which can also make use of our defects.
Alexis de Tocqueville
Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.
Alexis de Tocqueville
The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other.
Alexis de Tocqueville
There are two things which a democratic people will always find very difficult - to begin a war and to end it.
Alexis de Tocqueville
In the United States the majority undertakes to supply a multitude of ready-made opinions for the use of individuals, who are thus relieved from the necessity of forming opinions of…
Alexis de Tocqueville
In America the majority raises formidable barriers around the liberty of opinion; within these barriers an author may write what he pleases, but woe to him if he goes beyond…
Alexis de Tocqueville
Consider any individual at any period of his life, and you will always find him preoccupied with fresh plans to increase his comfort.
Alexis de Tocqueville
America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.
Alexis de Tocqueville
The genius of democracies is seen not only in the great number of new words introduced but even more in the new ideas they express.
Alexis de Tocqueville
However energetically society in general may strive to make all the citizens equal and alike, the personal pride of each individual will always make him try to escape from the…
Alexis de Tocqueville
The most dangerous moment for a bad government is when it begins to reform.
Alexis de Tocqueville
When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.
Alexis de Tocqueville
History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies.
Alexis de Tocqueville
It is the dissimilarities and inequalities among men which give rise to the notion of honor; as such differences become less, it grows feeble; and when they disappear, it will…
Alexis de Tocqueville
Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.
Alexis de Tocqueville
He was as great as a man can be without morality.
Alexis de Tocqueville
What is the most important for democracy is not that great fortunes should not exist, but that great fortunes should not remain in the same hands. In that way there…
Alexis de Tocqueville
Those that despise people will never get the best out of others and themselves.
Alexis de Tocqueville
The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens.
Alexis de Tocqueville
Americans are so enamored of equality, they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.
Alexis de Tocqueville
The whole life of an American is passed like a game of chance, a revolutionary crisis, or a battle.
Alexis de Tocqueville
There is hardly a political question in the United States which does not sooner or later turn into a judicial one.
Alexis de Tocqueville
I should have loved freedom, I believe, at all times, but in the time in which we live I am ready to worship it.
Alexis de Tocqueville
A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.
Alexis de Tocqueville
When American(s) ask for the cooperation of (their) fellow citizens, it is seldom refused; and I have often seen it afforded spontaneously and with great good will.
Alexis de Tocqueville
Life is to entered upon with courage.
Alexis de Tocqueville
The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through.
Alexis de Tocqueville
The main business of religions is to purify, control, and restrain that excessive and exclusive taste for well-being which men acquire in times of equality.
Alexis de Tocqueville
The last thing a political party gives up is its vocabulary.