Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes :
“America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”
“The most dangerous moment for a bad government is when it begins to reform.”
“In countries where associations are free, secret societies are unknown. In America, there are factions, but no conspiracies.”
“To be a hero or a demigod, a man must have an elevated mind and a soul of fire.”
“The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals; morals can turn the worst laws to advantage.”
“The will of the nation is one of those phrases which have been most largely abused by the wily and the despotic of every age.”
“I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.”
“No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country.”
“In no other country in the world is the love of property keener or more alert than in the United States.”
“The main business of religions is to purify, control, and restrain that excessive and exclusive taste for well-being which men acquire in times of equality.”
“Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.”
“Americans of all ages, all stations in life, and all types of disposition are forever forming associations.”
“Men will not accept truth at the hands of their enemies, and truth is seldom offered to them by their friends.”
“Every central government worships uniformity: uniformity relieves it from inquiry into an infinity of details.”
“It is easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth.”
“Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot.”
“There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.”
“The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens.”
“Scarcely any political question arises in the United States that is not resolved, sooner or later, into a judicial question.”
“Society will develop a new kind of servitude which covers the surface of society with a network of complicated rules, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate.”
“A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.”
“Democracy extends the sphere of individual freedom, socialism restricts it.”
“When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.”
“In the midst of this unremitting activity, we often want leisure for more indulgence.”
“Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.”
“The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colors breaking through.”
“If men are to remain civilized or to become so, the art of associating together must grow and improve in the same ratio in which the equality of conditions is increased.”
“I am unaware of any circumstances in history that remain so grave that they have not found their resolution over time.”
“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.”
“Life is to be entered upon with courage.”
“The more alike men are, the weaker each feels in the face of all.”
“Nothing is more wonderful than the art of being free, but nothing is harder to learn how to use than freedom.”
“There is hardly a political question in the United States which does not sooner or later turn into a judicial one.”
“The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.”
“There are two things which a democratic people will always find very difficult: to begin a war and to end it.”
“In America the majority raises formidable barriers around the liberty of opinion; within these barriers, an author may write what he pleases, but woe to him if he goes beyond them.”
“A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.”
“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.”
“In the end, however, it is in these ideas of progress that the American’s self-satisfaction is embedded.”
“He who seeks freedom for anything but freedom’s self is made to be a slave.”
“History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies.”
“Egotism is the source of everything good and bad that arises in modern democratic societies.”
“In a democracy, the people get the government they deserve.”
“In democracy, every generation is a new people.”
“I do not know if all Americans have a sincere love of liberty. But it is my opinion that liberty is at least liked by all.”
“The power of the minority is irresistible when it uses the majority in the service of its designs.”