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.
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLEOne 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.
More Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes
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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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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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Everybody feels the evil, but no one has courage or energy enough to seek the cure.
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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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Those which we call necessary institutions are simply no more than institutions to which we have become accustomed.
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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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America is a country where they have freedom of speech but everyone says the same thing.
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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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Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.
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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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One of the happiest consequences of the absence of government is the development of individual strength that inevitably follows.
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This so-called tolerance, which, in my opinion, is nothing but a huge indifference.
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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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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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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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