I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLEEquality is a slogan based on envy. It signifies in the heart of every republican: “Nobody is going to occupy a place higher than I.”
More Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes
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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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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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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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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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The man who asks of freedom anything other than itself is born to be a slave.
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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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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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I have only one passion, the love of liberty and human dignity.
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Socialism is a new form of slavery.
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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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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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As the past has ceased to throw its light upon the future, the mind of man wanders in obscurity.
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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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Nothing is so dangerous as that of violence employed by well-meaning people for beneficial objects.
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