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.
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLEThere is hardly a political question in the United States which does not sooner or later turn into a judicial one.
More Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes
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When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.
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History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies.
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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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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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I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.
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As the past has ceased to throw its light upon the future, the mind of man wanders in obscurity.
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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 is no country in the world in which everything can be provided for by the laws, or in which political institutions can prove a substitute for common sense and public morality.
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America is a country where they have freedom of speech but everyone says the same thing.
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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 last thing a political party gives up is its vocabulary.
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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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Righteous women in their circle of influence, beginning in the home, can turn the world around.
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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.
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE