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.
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLEThe 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.
More Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes
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I cannot help fearing that men may reach a point where they look on every new theory as a danger, every innovation as a toilsome trouble, every social advance as a first step toward revolution, and that they may absolutely refuse to move at all.
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When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.
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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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Society is endangered not by the great profligacy of a few, but by the laxity of morals amongst all.
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Every central government worships uniformity: uniformity relieves it from inquiry into an infinity of details.
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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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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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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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Despotism often presents itself as the repairer of all the ills suffered, the support of just rights, defender of the oppressed, and founder of order.
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Everybody feels the evil, but no one has courage or energy enough to seek the cure.
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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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Men will not receive the truth from their enemies, and it is seldom offered to them by their friends.
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The man who asks of freedom anything other than itself is born to be a slave.
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE







