To remain silent is the most useful service that a mediocre speaker can render to the public good.
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLEIf 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.
More Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes
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A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.
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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.
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America is a country where they have freedom of speech but everyone says the same thing.
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I should have loved freedom, I believe, at all times, but in the time in which we live I am ready to worship it.
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I vow that I do not hold that complete and instantaneous love for the freedom of the press that one accords to things whose nature is unqualifiedly good. I love it out of consideration for the evils it prevents much more than for the good it does.
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Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.
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History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies.
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Nothing is more wonderful than the art of being free, but nothing is harder to learn how to use than freedom.
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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.
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Men are not corrupted by the exercise of power or debased by the habit of obedience, but by the exercise of a power which they believe to be illegal and by obedience to a rule which they consider to be usurped and oppressive.
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It is easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth.
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When I refuse to obey an unjust law, I do not contest the right of the majority to command, but I simply appeal from the sovereignty of the people to the sovereignty of mankind.
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Everybody feels the evil, but no one has courage or energy enough to seek the cure.
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The tie of language is perhaps the strongest and the most durable that can unite mankind.
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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.”
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