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 TOCQUEVILLEEvery central government worships uniformity: uniformity relieves it from inquiry into an infinity of details.
More Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes
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Men will not receive the truth from their enemies, and it is seldom offered to them by their friends.
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In politics shared hatreds are almost always the basis of friendships.
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Christianity is the companion of liberty in all its conflicts, the cradle of its infancy, and the divine source of its claims.
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The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.
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Righteous women in their circle of influence, beginning in the home, can turn the world around.
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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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It is easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth.
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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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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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The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals; morals can turn the worst laws to advantage.
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Nothing is so dangerous as that of violence employed by well-meaning people for beneficial objects.
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There is no country in the world in which everything can be provided for by the laws, or in which political institutions can prove a substitute for common sense and public morality.
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Everybody feels the evil, but no one has courage or energy enough to seek the cure.
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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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As the past has ceased to throw its light upon the future, the mind of man wanders in obscurity.
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