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.”
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLEAmerica is a country where they have freedom of speech but everyone says the same thing.
More Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes
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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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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 is hardly a political question in the United States which does not sooner or later turn into a judicial one.
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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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In politics shared hatreds are almost always the basis of friendships.
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Everybody feels the evil, but no one has courage or energy enough to seek the cure.
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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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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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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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Righteous women in their circle of influence, beginning in the home, can turn the world around.
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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 best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals; morals can turn the worst laws to advantage.
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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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In the United States, the majority undertakes to supply a multitude of ready-made opinions for the use of individuals, who are thus relieved from the necessity of forming opinions of their own.
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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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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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As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of everything in this world only in the answer to this single question: how much money will it bring in?
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The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through.
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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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This so-called tolerance, which, in my opinion, is nothing but a huge indifference.
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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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Every central government worships uniformity: uniformity relieves it from inquiry into an infinity of details.
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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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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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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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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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