The tie of language is perhaps the strongest and the most durable that can unite mankind.
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLEIn 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.
More Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes
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We can state with conviction, therefore, that a man’s support for absolute government is in direct proportion to the contempt he feels for his country.
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The man who asks of freedom anything other than itself is born to be a slave.
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When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.
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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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Those who prize freedom only for the material benefits it offers have never kept it for long.
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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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There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.
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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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The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens.
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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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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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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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Nothing is so dangerous as that of violence employed by well-meaning people for beneficial objects.
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Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.
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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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