64 result(s) for Alexis De Tocqueville Quotes.
"In a democracy, the individual enjoys not only the ultimate power but carries ultimate responsibility."
"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money."
"The pride of the human heart is disastrous to society."
"Life is to be entered upon with courage."
"The free government which the Americans have established has not been able to escape from the perils of human authority."
"Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom."
"The trade of governing has always been monopolized by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of mankind."
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"The evil one suffers no rival."
"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."
"In a revolution, as in a novel, the most difficult part to invent is the end."
"I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run."
"The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by its private citizens."
"The American Republic is still the most easily changeable society there is."
"The science of association is the mother science; the progress of all the others depends on the progress of that one."
"The people reign over the American political world as God rules over the universe. They are the cause and end of all things; everything comes from them, and everything is absorbed by them."
"Americans cling to the right of free expression like the rusted dagger's blade."
"A decline of public morals in the United States will probably be marked by the abuse of the power of impeachment as a means of crushing political adversaries or ejecting them from office."
"In America I saw more than America; I sought the image of democracy itself, with its inclinations, its character, its prejudices, and its passions, in order to learn what we have to fear or hope from its progress."
"A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it."
"The American Republic is the flawed masterpiece. The Constitution is cumbersome, outdated, and leaves room for ambiguity, but the American spirit is indomitable."
"The French want no one to be their superior. The English want inferiors. The Frenchman constantly raises his eyes above him with anxiety. The Englishman lowers his beneath him with satisfaction."
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"Scarcely any political question arises in the United States that is not resolved, sooner or later, into a judicial question."
"I studied the Koran a great deal ... I came away from that study with the conviction that by and large there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as that of Muhammad."
"I do not hesitate to avow that although the women of the United States are confined within the narrow circle of domestic life, and their situation is, in some respects, one of extreme dependence, I have nowhere seen woman occupying a loftier position."
"It would seem that if despotism were to be established amongst the democratic nations of our days, it might assume a different character; it would be more extensive and more mild; it would degrade men without tormenting them."
"The Indian knew how to live without wants, to suffer without complaint, and to die singing."
"The deficiency of modern codes is that men have been taught to read them without understanding them."
"The great thing about America is that it offers you the opportunity to make yourself into almost anything you wish."
"In this matter the North and the South fell essentially to fighting about the shadow of profit, and I had to laugh to see two great nations coming to blows about nothing."
"The moral influence of woman will become all the greater the more that political influence diminishes; and when, on the contrary, men undertake to do without her and think to supplant her in the conduct of affairs, the social state soon ceases to be formed, the family is no longer anything but a group of enemies, and order no longer exists."
"The will is a beast of burdens. If God mounts it, it wishes and goes as God wills; if Satan mounts it, it wishes and goes as Satan wills; nor can it choose its rider...the riders contend for its possession."
"In a democracy, the people get the government they deserve."
"America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."
"The most dangerous moment for a bad government is when it starts to reform."
"There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle."
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"The man who asks of freedom anything other than itself is born to be a slave."
"I cannot help fearing that men may reach a point where they look on every new theory as a danger, every innovation as a toilsome trouble, every social advance as a first step toward revolution, and that they may absolutely refuse to move at all."
"The power of the periodical press is second only to that of the people."
"History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies."
"There are two things which will always be very difficult for a democratic nation: to start a war and to end it."
"Individualism is a calm and considered feeling which disposes each citizen to isolate himself from the mass of his fellows and withdraw into the circle of family and friends; with this little society formed to his taste, he gladly leaves the greater society to look after itself."
"Democratic nations care but little for what has been, but they are haunted by visions of what will be; in this direction their unbounded appetite for excitement shows itself."
"Among democratic nations, the wealthiest members of society are the first to give in to the desire of momentary good."
"The rich see the consequences of the change of government without liking the causes."
"I should have loved freedom, I believe, at all times, but in the time in which we live I am ready to worship it."
"To live in freedom, one must grow used to a life full of agitation, change, and danger."
"The Americans combine the notions of religion and liberty so intimately in their minds that it is impossible to make them conceive of one without the other."
"It is, indeed, difficult to imagine how men who have entirely given up the habit of managing their own affairs could be successful in choosing those who ought to lead them."
"If America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."
"It is always easy to convince others with their passions, but it is difficult to persuade them with their reasons."
"There is hardly a political question in the United States which does not sooner or later turn into a judicial one."
"As for me, I am deeply a democrat; this is why I am so concerned about the centralization of power."
"When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness."
"The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colors breaking through."
"The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults."
"In democratic societies, each new generation is a new people."
"The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals; morals can turn the worst laws to advantage."
"The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens."
"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."
"Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith."
"I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America."
"The power of the majority is so absolute and unresistible that it constantly surrounds a man's freedom of thought with a faith that repels the truth."
"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money."
"In politics shared hatreds are almost always the basis of friendships."
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