History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies.
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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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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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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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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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.”
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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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I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.
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Socialism is a new form of slavery.
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Those who prize freedom only for the material benefits it offers have never kept it for long.
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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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America is great because she is good.
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If I were asked to what the singular prosperity and growing strength of Americans ought mainly to be attributed, I should reply: To the superiority of their women.
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The last thing a political party gives up is its vocabulary.
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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 health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens.
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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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