Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes - Page 7

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• There is hardly a political question in the United States which does not sooner or later turn into a judicial one.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Motivational, Political, United States

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

  7 Copy quote

• I do not find fault with equality for drawing men into the pursuit of forbidden pleasures, but for absorbing them entirely in the search for the pleasures that are permitted.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Men, Drawing, Faults

  4 Copy quote

• Furthermore, when citizens are all almost equal, it becomes difficult for them to defend their independence against the aggressions of power.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Independence, Citizens, Difficult

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

  6 Copy quote

• A long war almost always places nations in this sad alternative: that their defeat delivers them to destruction and their triumph to despotism.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  War, Long, Triumph

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2012). “Democracy in America”, p.159, University of Chicago Press

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• The tie of language is perhaps the strongest and the most durable that can unite mankind.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Ties, Language, Mankind

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2003). “Democracy in America”, p.22, Regnery Publishing

  19 Copy quote

• It profits me but little, after all, that a vigilant authority always protects the tranquility of my pleasures and constantly averts all dangers from my path, without my care or concern, if this same authority is the absolute master of my liberty and my life.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Liberty, Care, Littles

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1870). “American Institutions”, p.116

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• Nations, as well as man, almost always betray the most prominent features of their future destiny in their earliest years. When I contemplate the ardour with which the Anglo-Americans prosecute commercial enterprise, the advantages which befriend them, and the success of their undertakings, I cannot refrain from believing that they will one day become the first maritime power of the globe. They are born to rule the seas, as the Romans were to conquer the world.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Believe, Destiny, Men

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1835). “Democracy in America”, p.447

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• An American cannot converse, but he can discuss, and his talk falls into a dissertation. He speaks to you as if he was addressing a meeting; and if he should chance to become warm in the discussion, he will say 'Gentlemen' to the person with whom he is conversing.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  War, Fall, Gentleman

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2001). “Democracy in America”, p.102, Penguin

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• Every central government worships uniformity: uniformity relieves it from inquiry into an infinity of details, which must be attended to if rules have to be adapted to different men, instead of indiscriminately subjecting all men to the same rule.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Men, Details, Different

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

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• The evil which one suffers patiently as inevitable seems insupportable as soon as he conceives the idea of escaping from it.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Escaping, Ideas, Evil

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• The Americans never use the word peasant, because they have no idea of the class which that term denotes; the ignorance of more remote ages, the simplicity of rural life, and the rusticity of the villager have not been preserved among them; and they are alike unacquainted with the virtues, the vices, the coarse habits, and the simple graces of an early stage of civilization.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Ignorance, Simple, Civilization

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2015). “Democracy in America - Vol. I. and II.”, p.336, Read Books Ltd

  10 Copy quote

• In a revolution, as in a novel, the most difficult part to invent is the end.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Revolution, Rebellious, Invention

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1896). “Recollections”, p.85, Library of Alexandria

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• Grant me thirty years of equal division of inheritances and a free press, and I will provide you with a republic.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Years, India, Division

  13 Copy quote

• When none but the wealthy had watches, they were almost all very good ones; few are now made which are worth much, but everybody has one in his pocket.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Class, Pockets, Watches

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

  8 Copy quote

• I am obliged to confess that I do not regard the abolition of slavery as a means of warding off the struggle of the two races in the Southern states. The Negroes may long remain slaves without complaining; but if they are once raised to the level of freemen, they will soon revolt at being deprived of almost all their civil rights; and as they cannot become the equals of the whites, they will speedily show themselves as enemies.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  War, Struggle, Mean

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1862). “Democracy in America”, p.486

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• Muhammad professed to derive from Heaven, and he has inserted in the Koran, not only a body of religious doctrines, but political maxims, civil and criminal laws, and theories of science. The gospel, on the contrary, only speaks of the general relations of men to God and to each other - beyond which it inculcates and imposes no point of faith. This alone, besides a thousand other reasons, would suffice to prove that the former of these religions will never long predominate in a cultivated and democratic age, whilst the latter is destined to retain its sway at these as at all other periods.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Religious, Men, Law

  "How Will History Remember Obama's 'Cairo Speech'?" by Mary Grabar, www.frontpagemag.com. October 15, 2012.

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• The Americans, on the contrary, are fond of explaining almost all the actions of their lives by the principle of interest rightly understood; they show with complacency how an enlightened regard for themselves constantly prompts them to assist each other, and inclines them willingly to sacrifice a portion of their time and property to the welfare of the state.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Sacrifice, Principles, Complacency

  Alexis De Tocqueville (2004). “Democracy in America: The Complete and Unabridged Volumes I and II”, p.440, Bantam Classics

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• I know of no other country where love of money has such a grip on men's hearts or where stronger scorn is expressed for the theory of permanent equality of property

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Love, Country, Money

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

  7 Copy quote

• If it be admitted that a man, possessing absolute power, may misuse that power by wronging his adversaries, why should a majority not be liable to the same reproach? Men are not apt to change their character by agglomeration; nor does their patience in the presence of obstacles increase with the consciousness of their strength. And for these reasons I can never willingly invest any number of my fellow creatures with that unlimited authority which I should refuse to any one of them.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Character, Men, Numbers

  Alexis de Tocqueville, John Canfield Spencer (1854). “American Institutions and Their Influence”, p.260

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• Countries, therefore, when lawmaking falls exclusively to the lot of the poor cannot hope for much economy in public expenditure; expenses will always be considerable, either because taxes cannot touch those who vote for them or because they are assessed in a way to prevent that.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Country, Fall, Way

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

  5 Copy quote

• Comfort becomes a goal when distinctions of rank are abolished and privileges destroyed.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Goal, Comfort, Privilege

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• Freedom sees in religion the companion of its struggles and its triumphs, the cradle of its infancy, the divine source of its rights. It considers religion as the safeguard of mores; and mores as the guarantee of laws and the pledge of its duration.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Religious, Struggle, Rights

  4 Copy quote

• He who seeks freedom for anything but freedom's self is made to be a slave.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Self, Slave, Made

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2013). “The Old Regime and the Revolution: The controversial bestselling guide to the origins of the French Revolution”, p.213, Harriman House Limited

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• Useful undertakings which require sustained attention and vigorous precision in order to succeed often end up by being abandoned, for, in America, as elsewhere, the people move forward by sudden impulses and short-lived efforts.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Moving, America, Order

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

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• There is hardly a pioneer's hut which does not contain a few odd volumes of Shakespeare. I remember reading the feudal drama of Henry V for the first time in a log cabin.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Education, Drama, Reading

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1840). “Democracy in America”, p.55

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