As the past has ceased to throw its light upon the future, the mind of man wanders in obscurity.
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLEThere are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.
More Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes
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I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run.
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The most perilous moment for a bad government is when it seeks to mend its ways. Only consummate statecraft can enable a king to save his throne when, after a long spell of oppression, he sets out to improve the lot of his subjects.
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The more government takes the place of associations, the more will individuals lose the idea of forming associations and need the government to come to their help. That is a vicious circle of cause and effect.
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One of the happiest consequences of the absence of government is the development of individual strength that inevitably follows.
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Those who prize freedom only for the material benefits it offers have never kept it for long.
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America is a country where they have freedom of speech but everyone says the same thing.
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It is easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth.
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Rulers who destroy men’s freedom commonly begin by trying to retain its forms. … They cherish the illusion that they can combine the prerogatives of absolute power with the moral authority that comes from popular assent.
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In the principle of equality I very clearly discern two tendencies; one leading the mind of every man to untried thoughts, the other prohibiting him from thinking at all.
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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.
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Everybody feels the evil, but no one has courage or energy enough to seek the cure.
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If 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.
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Those which we call necessary institutions are simply no more than institutions to which we have become accustomed.
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Every central government worships uniformity: uniformity relieves it from inquiry into an infinity of details.
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If an American was condemned to confine his activity to his own affairs, he would be robbed of one half of his existence.
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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.
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A man’s admiration of absolute government is proportionate to the contempt he feels for those around him.
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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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To remain silent is the most useful service that a mediocre speaker can render to the public good.
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The man who asks of freedom anything other than itself is born to be a slave.
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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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One of the most ordinary weaknesses of the human intellect is to seek to reconcile contrary principles, and to purchase peace at the expense of logic.
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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.
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However energetically society in general may strive to make all the citizens equal and alike, the personal pride of each individual will always make him try to escape from the common level, and he will form some inequality somewhere to his own profit.
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I have only one passion, the love of liberty and human dignity.
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