Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes - Page 3

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• It would seem as if the rulers of our time sought only to use men in order to make things great; I wish that they would try a little more to make great men; that they would set less value on the work and more upon the workman; that they would never forget that a nation cannot long remain strong when every man belonging to it is individually weak; and that no form or combination of social polity has yet been devised to make an energetic people out of a community of pusillanimous and enfeebled citizens.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Strong, Men, Order

  Alexis De Tocqueville (2013). “Democracy in America -”, p.340, Read Books Ltd

  19 Copy quote

• Righteous women in their circle of influence,
  beginning in the home, can turn the world around.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Home, Circles, World

  17 Copy quote

• The more government takes the place of associations, the more will individuals lose the idea of forming associations and need the government to come to their help. That is a vicious circle of cause and effect.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Government, Circles, Ideas

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

  14 Copy quote

• 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

  14 Copy quote

• The man who asks of freedom anything other than itself is born to be a slave.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Men, Liberty, Libertarian

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1978). “The old régime and the French Revolution”, Peter Smith Pub Inc

  31 Copy quote

• The last thing a political party gives up is its vocabulary.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Giving Up, Party, Vocabulary

  "Viking Book of Aphorisms". Book by W. H. Auden, and Louis Kronenberger, p. 306, 1962.

  8 Copy quote

• Every central government worships uniformity: uniformity relieves it from inquiry into an infinity of details.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Government, Liberty, Inquiry

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1863). “Democracy in America”, p.363

  27 Copy quote

• Life is to be entered upon with courage.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Courage, Worry, Anxiety

  33 Copy quote

• There are at the present time two great nations in the world--the Russians and the Americans. The American relies upon his personal interest to accomplish his ends and gives free scope to the unguided exertions and common sense of the people. The Russian centers all his authority of society in a single arm. The principal instrument of the former is freedom; of the latter, servitude. Their starting point is different and their courses are not the same; yet each of them seems marked by the will of Heaven to sway the destinies of half the globe.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Destiny, Two, Rely Upon

  8 Copy quote

• Equality is a slogan based on envy. It signifies in the heart of every republican: "Nobody is going to occupy a place higher than I."

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Heart, Equality, Envy

  Conversation with Nassau William Senior on May 22, 1850 "Correspondence and Conversations of Alexis de Tocqueville with Nassau William Senior from 1834 to 1859", p. 94, 1872.

  8 Copy quote

• Society is endangered not by the great profligacy of a few, but by the laxity of morals amongst all.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Moral

  Alexis De Tocqueville (2004). “Democracy in America: The Complete and Unabridged Volumes I and II”, p.500, Bantam Classics

  34 Copy quote

• If ever America undergoes great revolutions, they will be brought about by the presence of the black race on the soil of the United States - that is to say, they will owe their origin not to the equality but to the inequality of conditions.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Wisdom, Race, America

  Democracy in America vol. 2, sec. 3, ch. 21 (1840) (translation by Henry Reeve)

  9 Copy quote

• How could a society escape destruction if, when political ties are relaxed, moral ties are not tightened, and what can be done with a people master of itself if it not subject to God?

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Wisdom, Ties, People

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

  7 Copy quote

• everybody feels the evil, but no one has courage or energy enough to seek the cure

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Evil, Energy, Enough

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1836). “A Review of M. De Tocqueville's Work on Democracy in America ...”, p.10

  13 Copy quote

• Nothing is so dangerous as that of violence employed by well-meaning people for beneficial objects.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  People, Violence, Dangerous

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2013). “The Old Regime and the Revolution: The controversial bestselling guide to the origins of the French Revolution”, p.236, Harriman House Limited

  37 Copy quote

• There is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Christian, Country, Religious

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1870). “American Institutions”, p.388

  9 Copy quote

• America is a country where they have freedom of speech but everyone says the same thing.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Country, Freedom, America

  14 Copy quote

• As the past has ceased to throw its light upon the future, the mind of man wanders in obscurity.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Past, Men, Light

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

  11 Copy quote

• To get the inestimable good that freedom of the press assures one must know how to submit to the inevitable evil it gives rise to.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Evil, Giving, Inevitable

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2012). “Democracy in America”, p.175, University of Chicago Press

  7 Copy quote

• Laws are always unstable unless they are founded on the manners of a nation; and manners are the only durable and resisting power in a people.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Power, Law, People

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

  5 Copy quote

• One of the happiest consequences of the absence of government...is the development of individual strength that inevitably follows.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Government, Individual Strength, Development

  15 Copy quote

• 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.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Moving, Men, Innovation

  "Democracy in America". Book by Alexis de Tocqueville. Volume II, Book Three, Chapter XXI, 1840.

  49 Copy quote

• 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

  27 Copy quote

• I have only one passion, the love of liberty and human dignity.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Passion, Liberty, Dignity

  Alexis de Tocqueville, Roger Boesche, James Toupin (1986). “Selected Letters on Politics and Society”, p.115, Univ of California Press

  13 Copy quote

• 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

  Political, Democracy, Aristocracy

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

  35 Copy quote

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