Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes

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• Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Power, Greatness, Flames

  Misattributed to Tocqueville. "The Tocqueville Fraud" by John Pitney, www.weeklystandard.com. November 12, 1995.

  210 Copy quote

• The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Government, Discovery, America

  214 Copy quote
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  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

  Patriotic, Equality, Differences

  "Discours prononcé à l'assemblée constituante le 12 Septembre 1848 sur la question du droit au travail". Oeuvres complètes, Volume IX, p. 546, 1866.

  171 Copy quote

• Society will develop a new kind of servitude which covers the surface of society with a network of complicated rules, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate. It does not tyrannise but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Character, Animal, Government

  157 Copy quote

• It is easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Lying, Simple, World

  124 Copy quote
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  Despotism often presents itself as the repairer of all the ills suffered, the support of just rights, defender of the oppressed, and founder of order.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Rights, Order, Support

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1990). “Democracy in America”

  133 Copy quote

• Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Pregnancy, Liberty, Ethics

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1847). “Democracy in America”, p.11

  66 Copy quote

• The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Lying, Greatness, America

  "Democracy in America". Book by Alexis de Tocqueville. Chapter XIII, 1835.

  35 Copy quote

• Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.... The subjection of individuals will increase amongst democratic nations, not only in the same proportion as their equality, but in the same proportion as their ignorance.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Ignorance, Equality, Slavery

  78 Copy quote

• 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.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Running, Men, Office

  63 Copy quote

• I studied the Quran 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. As far as I can see, it is the principal cause of the decadence so visible today in the Muslim world and, though less absurd than the polytheism of old, its social and political tendencies are in my opinion more to be feared, and I therefore regard it as a form of decadence rather than a form of progress in relation to paganism itself.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Men, Political, Islam

  "The Tocqueville Reader: A Life in Letters and Politics". Book by Alexis de Tocqueville; edited by Olivier Zunz and Alan S. Kahan, p. 229, 2002.

  157 Copy quote

• Any measure that establishes legal charity on a permanent basis and gives it an administrative form thereby creates an idle and lazy class, living at the expense of the industrial and working class.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Class, Giving, Lazy

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2006). “Memoir on Pauperism: Does Public Charity Produce an Idle And Dependent Class of Society?”, p.26, Cosimo, Inc.

  22 Copy quote

• When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Inspirational, Motivational, Past

  "Democracy in America". Book by Alexis de Tocqueville, Volume II. Book Four, Chapter VIII, 1840.

  33 Copy quote

• The character of Anglo-American civilization . . . is the product . . . of two perfectly distinct elements that elsewhere have often made war with each other, but which, in America, they have succeeded in incorporating somehow into one another and combining marvelously. I mean to speak of the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  War, Character, Mean

  4 Copy quote

• Upon my arrival in the United States the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention; and the longer I stayed there, the more I perceived the great political consequences resulting from this new state of things. In France, I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom marching in opposite directions. But in America I found they were intimately united and that they reigned in common over the same country.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Country, Religious, Opposites

  Alexis De Tocqueville (1863). “Democracy In America -- Vol. 1”, p.394

  45 Copy quote

• Because Roman civilization perished through barbarian invasions, we are perhaps too much inclined to think that that is the only way a civilization can die. If the lights that guide us ever go out, they will fade little by little, as if of their own accord.... We therefore should not console ourselves by thinking that the barbarians are still a long way off. Some peoples may let the torch be snatched from their hands, but others stamp it out themselves.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Thinking, Light, Hands

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1990). “Democracy in America”

  21 Copy quote

• A man's admiration of absolute government is proportionate to the contempt he feels for those around him.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Men, Admiration, Collectivism

  "The Old Regime and the French Revolution".

  53 Copy quote

• As for me, I am deeply a democrat; this is why I am in no way a socialist. Democracy and socialism cannot go together. You can't have it both ways. Socialism is a new form of slavery.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Philosophy, Political, Together

  Notes for a Speech on Socialism, 1848.

  27 Copy quote

• There is in fact a manly and legitimate passion for equality that spurs all men to wish to be strong and esteemed. This passion tends to elevate the lesser to the rank of the greater. But one also finds in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to want to bring the strong down to their level, and which reduces men to preferring equality in servitude to inequality in freedom.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Freedom, Equality, America

  "Democracy in America". Book by Alexis de Tocqueville. Chapter III, Part I, 1835.

  131 Copy quote

• I am deeply convinced that any permanent, regular administrative system whose aim is to provide for the needs of the poor will breed more miseries than it can cure, will deprave the population that it wants to help and comfort, will dry up the sources of savings, will stop the accumulation of capital, will retard the development of trade, and will benumb human industry.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Dry Up, Comfort, Population

  Alexis de Tocqueville, Gustave de Beaumont (1968). “Tocqueville and Beaumont on social reform”

  47 Copy quote

• 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 their own.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Political, Majority, United States

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1840). “Democracy in America”, p.18

  62 Copy quote

• There is, in fact, a manly and lawful passion for equality which excites men to wish all to be powerful and honored. This passion tends to elevate the humble to the rank of the great; but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level, and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Powerful, Passion, Heart

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1839). “Democracy in America”, p.50

  25 Copy quote

• Despotism can do without faith but freedom cannot.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Despotism, Tyranny, Can Do

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2012). “Democracy in America”, p.282, University of Chicago Press

  13 Copy quote

• There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Party, Men, America

  110 Copy quote

• There is no country in the world in which everything can be provided for by the laws, or in which political institutions can prove a substitute for common sense and public morality.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Country, Law, Common Sense

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2003). “Democracy in America”, p.101, The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.

  73 Copy quote

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