Those who prize freedom only for the material benefits it offers have never kept it for long.
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLEHistory is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies.
More Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes
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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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Equality is a slogan based on envy. It signifies in the heart of every republican: “Nobody is going to occupy a place higher than I.”
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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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When I refuse to obey an unjust law, I do not contest the right of the majority to command, but I simply appeal from the sovereignty of the people to the sovereignty of mankind.
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I have only one passion, the love of liberty and human dignity.
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Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.
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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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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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It is easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth.
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In politics shared hatreds are almost always the basis of friendships.
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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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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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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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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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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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The Americans combine the notions of religion and liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive of one without the other.
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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 tie of language is perhaps the strongest and the most durable that can unite mankind.
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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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This so-called tolerance, which, in my opinion, is nothing but a huge indifference.
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Righteous women in their circle of influence, beginning in the home, can turn the world around.
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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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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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There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.
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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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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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