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 TOCQUEVILLEThe last thing a political party gives up is its vocabulary.
More Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes
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Society is endangered not by the great profligacy of a few, but by the laxity of morals amongst all.
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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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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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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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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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America is a country where they have freedom of speech but everyone says the same thing.
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The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.
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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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The last thing a political party gives up is its vocabulary.
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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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When a large number of organs of the press come to advance along the same track, their influence becomes almost irresistible in the long term, and public opinion, struck always from the same side, ends by yielding under their blows.
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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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Nothing is so dangerous as that of violence employed by well-meaning people for beneficial objects.
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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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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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