Alexis de Tocqueville
"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
"Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom."
Alexis de Tocqueville
"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
"The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens."
Alexis de Tocqueville
"There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle."
Alexis de Tocqueville
"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
"When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness."
Alexis de Tocqueville
"A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it."
Alexis de Tocqueville
"We succeed in enterprises which demand the positive qualities we possess, but we excel in those which can also make use of our defects."
Alexis de Tocqueville
"I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America."
Alexis de Tocqueville
"Those that despise people will never get the best out of others and themselves."
Alexis de Tocqueville
"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
"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
"In a revolution, as in a novel, the most difficult part to invent is the end."
Alexis de Tocqueville
"There is hardly a political question in the United States which does not sooner or later turn into a judicial one."
Alexis de Tocqueville
"Consider any individual at any period of his life, and you will always find him preoccupied with fresh plans to increase his comfort."
Alexis de Tocqueville
"The Indian knew how to live without wants, to suffer without complaint, and to die singing."
Alexis de Tocqueville
"There are two things which a democratic people will always find very difficult - to begin a war and to end it."
Alexis de Tocqueville
"In other words, a democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it."
Alexis de Tocqueville
"The French want no-one to be their superior. The English want inferiors. The Frenchman constantly raises his eyes above him with anxiety. The Englishman lowers his beneath him with satisfaction."
Alexis de Tocqueville
"The genius of democracies is seen not only in the great number of new words introduced but even more in the new ideas they express."
Alexis de Tocqueville
"The whole life of an American is passed like a game of chance, a revolutionary crisis, or a battle."
Alexis de Tocqueville
"All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it."
Alexis de Tocqueville
"The Americans combine the notions of religion and liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive of one without the other."
Alexis de Tocqueville
"The main business of religions is to purify, control, and restrain that excessive and exclusive taste for well-being which men acquire in times of equality."
Alexis de Tocqueville
"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
"It is the dissimilarities and inequalities among men which give rise to the notion of honor; as such differences become less, it grows feeble; and when they disappear, it will vanish too."
Alexis de Tocqueville
"Grant me thirty years of equal division of inheritances and a free press, and I will provide you with a republic."
Alexis de Tocqueville
"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
"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money."
Alexis de Tocqueville
"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
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