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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.

Alexis de Tocqueville

Christianity is the companion of liberty in all its conflicts, the cradle of its infancy, and the divine source of its claims.
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE

Divine Liberty
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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Charity Creation Establishment Live
A man’s admiration of absolute government is proportionate to the contempt he feels for those around him.
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Company Feeling Government Himself Men
In politics shared hatreds are almost always the basis of friendships.
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Friendship Hate Politics
This so-called tolerance, which, in my opinion, is nothing but a huge indifference.
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE

Difference Myself Opinion Tolerance
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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Art Freedom Hard Wonderful
It is easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth.
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Easy Lying Simplicity Truth World
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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Equality Himself Leadership Men Thinking
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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Accomplishment Democracy Destroy Nation Peace Seek War
The man who asks of freedom anything other than itself is born to be a slave.
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE

Born Freedom Liberty Men Slave
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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Independent Necessary Opinion Politics relief
I have only one passion, the love of liberty and human dignity.
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Dignity Human Liberty Love Passion
The most dangerous moment for a bad government is when it begins to reform.
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Beginning Dangerous Government Moments
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.
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE

Citizenship Equality Escape Himself Pride Try
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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Government Help Ideas Lose Need Place
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.
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE

End Media News Opinion Politics