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 TOCQUEVILLENothing is more wonderful than the art of being free, but nothing is harder to learn how to use than freedom.
More Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes
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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.
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In politics shared hatreds are almost always the basis of friendships.
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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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Righteous women in their circle of influence, beginning in the home, can turn the world around.
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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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I have only one passion, the love of liberty and human dignity.
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Slavery…dishonors labor. It introduces idleness into society, and with idleness, ignorance and pride, luxury and distress. It enervates the powers of the mind and benumbs the activity of man.
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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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The last thing a political party gives up is its vocabulary.
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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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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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The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.
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The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals; morals can turn the worst laws to advantage.
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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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When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.
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There is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America.
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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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If I were asked to what the singular prosperity and growing strength of Americans ought mainly to be attributed, I should reply: To the superiority of their women.
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As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of everything in this world only in the answer to this single question: how much money will it bring in?
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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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There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.
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Christianity is the companion of liberty in all its conflicts, the cradle of its infancy, and the divine source of its claims.
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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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Every central government worships uniformity: uniformity relieves it from inquiry into an infinity of details.
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Generally speaking, only simple conceptions can grip the mind of a nation. An idea that is clear and precise even though false will always have greater power in the world than an idea that is true but complex.
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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.
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