Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes

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.

In politics shared hatreds are almost always the basis of friendships.

The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.

It is easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth.

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.

I vow that I do not hold that complete and instantaneous love for the freedom of the press that one accords to things whose nature is unqualifiedly good. I love it out of consideration for the evils it prevents much more than for the good it does.

To remain silent is the most useful service that a mediocre speaker can render to the public good.

A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.

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.

There is hardly a political question in the United States which does not sooner or later turn into a judicial one.