If an American was condemned to confine his activity to his own affairs, he would be robbed of one half of his existence.
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLEWe 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.
More Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes
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I cannot help fearing that men may reach a point where they look on every new theory as a danger, every innovation as a toilsome trouble, every social advance as a first step toward revolution, and that they may absolutely refuse to move at all.
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The last thing a political party gives up is its vocabulary.
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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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As for me, I am deeply a democrat; this is why I am in no way a socialist. Democracy and socialism cannot go together. You can’t have it both ways. Socialism is a new form of slavery.
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The man who asks of freedom anything other than itself is born to be a slave.
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Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.
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Every central government worships uniformity: uniformity relieves it from inquiry into an infinity of details.
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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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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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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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Those which we call necessary institutions are simply no more than institutions to which we have become accustomed.
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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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Socialism is a new form of slavery.
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Any measure that establishes legal charity on a permanent basis and gives it an administrative form thereby creates an idle and lazy class, living at the expense of the industrial and working class.
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In politics shared hatreds are almost always the basis of friendships.
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE