Democratic nations care but little for what has been, but they are haunted by visions of what will be. — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
Amongst democratic nations, each new generation is a new people. — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
Despotism may be able to do without religion, but democracy cannot. — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
Grant me thirty years of equal division of inheritances and a free press, and I will provide you with a republic. — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
“Democratic institutions strongly tend to promote the feeling of envy.” — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
No men are less addicted to reverie than the citizens of a democracy. — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
Democracy does not create strong ties between people. But it does make living together easier. — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
I considered mores to be one of the great general causes responsible for the maintenance of a democratic republic . . .… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
“But a democracy can only obtain truth as the result of experience, and many nations may forfeit their existence whilst they are… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
“He who in given cases consents to obey his fellows with servility, and who submits his will, and even his thoughts, to… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
In democratic centuries, on the contrary, when the duties of each individual toward the species are much clearer, devotion toward one man… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
“In other words, the government of the democracy is the only one under which the power which lays on taxes escapes the… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
In democracies, nothing is more great or more brilliant than commerce: it attracts the attention of the public, and fills the imagination… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
The progress of democracy seems irresistible, because it is the most uniform, the most ancient and the most permanent tendency which is… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
One of the distinguishing characteristics of a democratic period is the taste that all men have for easy success and present enjoyment.… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
Not only does democracy make every man forget his ancestors, but also clouds their view of their descendants and isolates them from… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
“Democratic institutions awaken and foster a passion for equality which they can never entirely satisfy. This complete equality eludes the grasp of… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
“The foremost, or indeed the sole condition, which is required in order to succeed in centralizing the supreme power in a democratic… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
I have an intellectual inclination for democratic institutions, but I am instinctively an aristocrat, which means that I despise and fear the… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
“Aristocracy naturally leads the human mind to the contemplation of the past, and fixes it there. Democracy, on the contrary, gives men… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
Democratic communities have a natural taste for freedom: left to themselves they will seek it, cherish it, and view any deprivation of… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
Democracy encourages a taste for physical gratification; this taste, if it becomes excessive, soon disposes men to believe that all is matter… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
“Now, these eager and apprehensive men of small property constitute the class which is constantly increased by the equality of conditions. Hence,… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
“In running over the pages of our history for seven hundred years, we shall scarcely find a single great event which has… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
“Another tendency, which is extremely natural to democratic nations and extremely dangerous, is that which leads them to despise and undervalue the… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
“ Tyranny in democratic republics does not proceed in the same way, however. It ignores the body and goes straight for the… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
“It is extremely difficult to obtain a hearing from men living in democracies, unless it be to speak to them of themselves.… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
Americans of all ages, all stations in life, and all types of disposition are forever forming associations. There are not only commercial… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
“The democratic nations that have introduced freedom into their political constitution at the very time when they were augmenting the despotism of… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
“It was not man who implanted in himself what is infinite and the love of what is immortal: those lofty instincts are… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
Muhammad brought down from heaven and put into the Koran not religious doctrines only, but political maxims, criminal and civil laws, and… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
“Our contemporaries are constantly excited by two conflicting passions; they want to be led, and they wish to remain free: as they… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
“The chief care of the legislators [in the colonies of New England] was the maintenance of orderly conduct and good morals in… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
“Princes had, so to speak, turned violence into a physical thing but our democratic republics have made it into something as intellectual… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
Town meetings are to liberty what primary schools are to science; they bring it within the people's reach... — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
Democratic institutions generally give men a lofty notion of their country and themselves. — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
The will of the nation is one of those phrases most widely abused by schemers and tyrants of all ages. — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
Can it be believed that the democracy which overthrew the feudal system and vanquished kings will retreat before tradesmen and capitalists? — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
“Nothing is more necessary to the culture of the higher sciences, or of the more elevated departments of science, than meditation; and… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
I have no hesitation in saying that although the American woman never leaves her domestic sphere and is in some respects very dependent within… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share
No state of society or laws can render men so much alike but that education, fortune, and tastes will interpose some differences between them;… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share
I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share
What good does it do me, after all, if an ever-watchful authority keeps an eye out to ensure that my pleasures will be tranquil… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share
The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults. — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share
“I am unacquainted with His designs, but I shall not cease to believe in them because I cannot fathom them, and I had rather… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share
I questioned the faithful of all communions; I particularly sought the society of clergymen, who are the depositories of the various creeds and have… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share
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 Copy Share
“There is a twofold liberty, natural (I mean as our nature is now corrupt) and civil or federal. The first is common to man… — Alexis De Tocqueville Copy Share
Upon my arrival in the United States the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention; and the longer… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share
Despotism often presents itself as the repairer of all the ills suffered, the support of just rights, defender of the oppressed, and founder of… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share
On this waterlogged landscape…are scattered palaces and hovels…It is here that the human spirit becomes perfect, and at the same time brutalised, that civilisation… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share
![“The chief care of the legislators [in the colonies of New England] was the maintenance of orderly conduct and good morals in the community: thus they constantly invaded the domain of conscience, and there was scarcely a sin which was no subject to magisterial censure. The reader is aware of the…” quote by Alexis de Tocqueville](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/36c/alexis-de-tocqueville-625_1835_the-chief-care-of-the-legislators-in-the_1154449.jpg)
