Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes - Page 8

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• If there ever are great revolutions there, they will be caused by the presence of the blacks upon American soil.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Political, Soil, Revolution

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

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• The progress of democracy seems irresistible, because it is the most uniform, the most ancient and the most permanent tendency which is to be found in history.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Democracy, Progress, Uniforms

  Alexis De Tocqueville (2015). “Democracy in America: Book One”, p.30, eKitap Projesi

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• History, it is easily perceived, is a picture-gallery containing a host of copies and very few originals.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Host, Gallery, Copies

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2013). “The Old Regime and the Revolution: The controversial bestselling guide to the origins of the French Revolution”, p.100, Harriman House Limited

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• The more I view the independence of the press in its principal effects, the more I convince myself that among the moderns the independence of the press is the capital and so to speak the constitutive element of freedom.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Views, Independence, Elements

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• No men are less addicted to reverie than the citizens of a democracy.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Men, Democracy, Citizens

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

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• Above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to secure their gratifications, and to watch over their fate. That power is absolute, minute, regular, provident, and mild. It would be like the authority of a parent, if, like that authority, its object was to prepare them for manhood; but it seeks, on the contrary, to keep them in perpetual childhood.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Fate, Men, Power

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1863). “Democracy in America”, p.392

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• 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”

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• In America one of the first things done in a new State is to make the post go there; in the forests of Michigan there is no cabin so isolated, no valley so wild, but that letters and newspapers arrive at least once a week.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  America, Cabins, Valleys

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• Nothing is quite so wretchedly corrupt as an aristocracy which has lost its power but kept its wealth and which still has endless leisure to devote to nothing but banal enjoyments. All its great thoughts and passionate energy are things of the past, and nothing but a host of petty, gnawing vices now cling to it like worms to a corpse.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Past, Vices, Energy

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

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• Nothing is more annoying in the ordinary intercourse of life than this irritable patriotism of the Americans. A foreigner will gladly agree to praise much in their country, but he would like to be allowed to criticize something, and that he is absolutely refused.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Country, Political, Ordinary

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

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• I am far from denying that newspapers in democratic countries lead citizens to do very ill-considered things in common; but without newspapers there would be hardly any common action at all. So they mend many more ills than they cause.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Country, America, Would Be

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

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• No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Country, Peace, War

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2001). “Democracy in America”, p.268, Penguin

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• Among the laws controlling human societies there is one more precise and clearer, it seems to me, than all the others. If men are to remain civilized or to become civilized, the art of association must develop and improve among them at the same speed as equality of conditions spreads.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Art, Men, Law

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

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• It must not be forgotten that it is especially dangerous to enslave men in the minor details of life.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Men, Details Of Life, Forgotten

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2015). “Democracy In America”, p.326, Sheba Blake Publishing

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• Society was cut in two: those who had nothing united in common envy; those who had anything united in common terror.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Cutting, Two, Envy

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1995). “Recollections: the French Revolution of 1848”, p.98, Transaction Publishers

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• The nations of our time cannot prevent the conditions of men from becoming equal, but it depends upon themselves whether the principle of equality is to lead them to servitude or freedom, to knowledge or barbarism, to prosperity or wretchedness.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Wisdom, Men, Principles

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1863). “Democracy in America”, p.412

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• In the United States, if a political character attacks a sect, this may not prevent even the partisans of that very sect, from supporting him; but if he attacks all the sects together, every one abandons him and he remains alone.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Character, Political, Together

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1851). “The Republic of the United States of America: And Its Political Institutions, Reviewed and Examined”, p.334

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• In no other country in the world is the love of property keener or more alert than in the United States, and nowhere else does the majority display less inclination toward doctrines which in any way threaten the way property is owned.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Love, Country, America

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2003). “Democracy in America”, p.708, Regnery Publishing

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• One has freedom as the principal means of action; the other has servitude. Their . . . paths [are] diverse; nevertheless, each seems called by some secret design of Providence one day to hold in its hands the destinies of half the world.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Mean, Destiny, Hands

  "Democracy in America". Book by Alexis de Tocqueville (originally published 1835-1840), translated by George Lawrence, vol. 1, part 2, Conclusion, final paragraphs, p. 412-413, 1969.

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• When, after having examined in detail the organization of the Supreme Court, one comes to consider in sum the prerogatives that have been given it, one discovers without difficulty that a more immense judicial power has never been constituted in any people.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Organization, People, Judicial Power

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2012). “Democracy in America”, p.141, University of Chicago Press

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• There are two things which a democratic people will always find very difficult - to begin a war and to end it.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  War, Two, People

  Alexis De Tocqueville (2009). “Democracy in America: Volumes I & II”, p.1253, The Floating Press

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• The French constitute the most brilliant and the most dangerous nation in Europe and the best qualified in turn to become an object of admiration, hatred, pity or terror but never indifference.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Europe, Hatred, Brilliant

  "The Old Regime and the Revolution". Book by Alexis de Tocqueville, p. 245, 1856.

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• The people reign over the American political world as God rules over the universe. It is the cause and the end of all things; everything rises out of it and is absorbed back into it.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  People, Political, Causes

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

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• The Union was formed by the voluntary agreement of the States; and these, in uniting together, have not forfeited their Nationality, nor have they been reduced to the condition of one and the same people. If one of the States chose to withdraw its name from the contract, it would be difficult to disprove its right of doing so.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Agreement, Names, People

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1847). “Democracy in America”, p.419

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• You may be sure that if you succeed in bringing your audience into the presence of something that affects them, they will not care by what road you brought them there; and they will never reproach you for having excited their emotions in spite of dramatic rules.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Care, May, Succeed

  Alexis De Tocqueville (2004). “Democracy in America: The Complete and Unabridged Volumes I and II”, p.410, Bantam Classics

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