Quotes By Alexis De Tocqueville

Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.

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.

I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.

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.

The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.

The power of the periodical press is second only to that of the people.

He was as great as a man can be without morality.

What is most important for democracy is not that great fortunes should not exist, but that great fortunes should not remain in the same hands. In that way there are rich men, but they do not form a class.

The Indian knew how to live without wants, to suffer without complaint, and to die singing.

The debates of that great assembly are frequently vague and perplexed, seeming to be dragged rather than to march, to the intended goal. Something of this sort must, I think, always happen in public democratic assemblies.

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.

The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.

Consider any individual at any period of his life, and you will always find him preoccupied with fresh plans to increase his comfort.

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.

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

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.

Those that despise people will never get the best out of others and themselves.

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.

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.

Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.

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.

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.

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

In politics shared hatreds are almost always the basis of friendships.

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

A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.

We succeed in enterprises which demand the positive qualities we possess, but we excel in those which can also make use of our defects.

The whole life of an American is passed like a game of chance, a revolutionary crisis, or a battle.

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

Nothing seems at first sight less important than the outward form of human actions, yet there is nothing upon which men set more store: they grow used to everything except to living in a society which has not their own manners.