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.
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLEAny 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.
More Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes
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There is no country in the world in which everything can be provided for by the laws, or in which political institutions can prove a substitute for common sense and public morality.
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This so-called tolerance, which, in my opinion, is nothing but a huge indifference.
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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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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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One of the most ordinary weaknesses of the human intellect is to seek to reconcile contrary principles, and to purchase peace at the expense of logic.
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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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The tie of language is perhaps the strongest and the most durable that can unite mankind.
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Life is to be entered upon with courage.
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It is easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth.
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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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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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The last thing a political party gives up is its vocabulary.
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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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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 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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