I have only one passion, the love of liberty and human dignity.
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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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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The most dangerous moment for a bad government is when it begins to reform.
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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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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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We 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.
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The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens.
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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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Everybody feels the evil, but no one has courage or energy enough to seek the cure.
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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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To remain silent is the most useful service that a mediocre speaker can render to the public good.
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However energetically society in general may strive to make all the citizens equal and alike, the personal pride of each individual will always make him try to escape from the common level, and he will form some inequality somewhere to his own profit.
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When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.
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I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run.
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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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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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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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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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The tie of language is perhaps the strongest and the most durable that can unite mankind.
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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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If an American was condemned to confine his activity to his own affairs, he would be robbed of one half of his existence.
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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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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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The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals; morals can turn the worst laws to advantage.
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This so-called tolerance, which, in my opinion, is nothing but a huge indifference.
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Life is to be entered upon with courage.
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Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.
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