Every central government worships uniformity: uniformity relieves it from inquiry into an infinity of details.
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLEGenerally 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.
More Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes
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History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies.
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To remain silent is the most useful service that a mediocre speaker can render to the public good.
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Socialism is a new form of slavery.
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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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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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When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.
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Nothing is so dangerous as that of violence employed by well-meaning people for beneficial objects.
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I have seen Americans making great and sincere sacrifices for the key common good and a hundred times I have noticed that, when needs be, they almost always gave each other faithful support.
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Righteous women in their circle of influence, beginning in the home, can turn the world around.
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This so-called tolerance, which, in my opinion, is nothing but a huge indifference.
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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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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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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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As the past has ceased to throw its light upon the future, the mind of man wanders in obscurity.
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The most perilous moment for a bad government is when it seeks to mend its ways. Only consummate statecraft can enable a king to save his throne when, after a long spell of oppression, he sets out to improve the lot of his subjects.
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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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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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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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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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The man who asks of freedom anything other than itself is born to be a slave.
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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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Everybody feels the evil, but no one has courage or energy enough to seek the cure.
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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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America is a country where they have freedom of speech but everyone says the same thing.
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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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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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