Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes About Opinions

Quotes about: Opinions

• 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.

• 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

• When a large number of organs of the press come to advance along the same track, their influence becomes almost irresistible in the long term, and public opinion, struck always from the same side, ends by yielding under their blows.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Blow, Numbers, Long

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2012). “Democracy in America”, p.178, University of Chicago Press

• Even despots accept the excellence of liberty. The simple truth is that they wish to keep it for themselves and promote the idea that no one else is at all worthy of it. Thus, our opinion
  of liberty does not reveal our differences but the relative value which we place on our fellow man. We can state with conviction, therefore, that a man's support for absolute government is
  in direct proportion to the contempt he feels for his country.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Country, Simple, Men

  "'L'Ancien Régime et la Révolution' ('The Old Regime and the Revolution')". Book by Alexis de Tocqueville, translated by Gerald Bevan. Author's Foreword, 2008.

• The French under the old monarchy held it for a maxim that the king could do no wrong . The Americans entertain the same opinion with respect to the majority.... If ever the free institutions of America are destroyed, that event may be attributed to the omnipotence of the majority.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Kings, Omnipotence, America

• Religion in America . . . Must be regarded as the foremost of the political institutions for that country; for if it does not impart a taste for freedom, it facilitates the use of it . . . I do know know whether all Americans have a sincere faith in their religion - for who can search the human heart? - But I am certain that they hold it to be indispensable to the maintenance of republican institutions. This opinion is not peculiar to a class of citizens or a party, but it belongs to the whole nation and to every rank of society.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Country, Party, Heart

• 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 them.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Freedom, Writing, America

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2001). “Democracy in America”, p.110, Penguin

• A French observer is surprised to hear how often an English or an American lawyer quotes the opinions of others, and how little he alludes to his own; ... This abnegation of his own opinion, and this implicit deference to the opinion of his forefathers, which are common to the English and American lawyer, this servitude of thought which he is obliged to profess, necessarily give him more timid habits and more conservative inclinations in England and America than in France.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  England And America, Law, Giving

  Alexis De Tocqueville (2004). “Democracy in America: The Complete and Unabridged Volumes I and II”, p.235, Bantam Classics

• If a [democratic] society displays less brilliance than an aristocracy, there will also be less wretchedness; pleasures will be less outrageous and wellbeing will be shared by all; the sciences will be on a smaller scale but ignorance will be less common; opinions will be less vigorous and habits gentler; you will notice more vices and fewer crimes.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Ignorance, Vices, Aristocracy

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

• In the United States, except for slaves, servants and the destitute fed by townships, everyone has the vote and this is an indirect contributor to law-making. Anyone wishing to attack the
  law is thus reduced to adopting one of two obvious courses: they must either change the nation's opinion or trample its wishes under foot.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Law, Two, Feet

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

• In the absence of government each man learns to think, to act for himself, without counting on the support of an outside force which, however vigilant one supposes it to be, can never answer all social needs. Man, thus accustomed to seek his well-being only through his own efforts, raises himself in his own opinion as he does in the opinion of others; his soul becomes larger and stronger at the same time.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Men, Thinking, Support

• This so-called tolerance, which, in my opinion, is nothing but a huge indifference.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Tolerance, Opinion, Indifference

  Alexis de Tocqueville, Roger Boesche, James Toupin (1986). “Selected Letters on Politics and Society”, p.48, Univ of California Press

• When an opinion has taken root in a democracy and established itself in the minds of the majority, it afterward persists by itself, needing no effort to maintain it since no one attacks it.
  “Those who at first rejected it as false come in the end to adopt it as accepted, and even those who still at the bottom of their hearts oppose it keep their views to themselves, taking
  great care to avoid a dangerous and futile contest.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Taken, Heart, Views

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

• They all attributed the peaceful dominion of religion in their country mainly to the separation of church and state. I do not hesitate to affirm that during my stay in America I did not
  meet a single individual, of the clergy or the laity, who was not of the same opinion on this point.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Country, America, Peaceful

  Alexis de Tocqueville, Henry Reeve, Francis Bowen, Patrick Renshaw (1998). “Democracy in America”, p.121, Wordsworth Editions

• Men seldom take the opinion of their equal, or of a man like themselves, upon trust.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Men, Opinion, Equal

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

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