Freedom Quotes by Alexis de Tocqueville

America is a country where they have freedom of speech but everyone says the same thing.

— Alexis de Tocqueville

“Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot.”

— Alexis de Tocqueville

I have only one passion, the love of liberty and human dignity.

— Alexis de Tocqueville

The man who asks of freedom anything other than itself is born to be a slave.

— Alexis de Tocqueville

“Town-meetings are to liberty what primary schools are to science;”

— Alexis de Tocqueville

Those who prize freedom only for the material benefits it offers have never kept it for long.

— Alexis de Tocqueville

He who seeks freedom for anything but freedom's self is made to be a slave.

— Alexis de Tocqueville

Despotism can do without faith but freedom cannot.

— Alexis de Tocqueville

The Americans combine the notions of religion and liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

“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

“Men will not accept truth at the hands of their enemies, and truth is seldom offered to them by their friends”

— Alexis de Tocqueville

“to be a government of "liberty regulated by law," with such results in the development of strength, in population, wealth, and military…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

[Liberty] considers religion as the safeguard of morality, and morality as the best security of law and the surest pledge of the…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

Furthermore, when citizens are all almost equal, it becomes difficult for them to defend their independence against the aggressions of power.

— Alexis de Tocqueville

“Americans are so enamored of equality, they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.”

— Alexis de Tocqueville

I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.

— Alexis de Tocqueville

I avow that I do not hold that complete and instantaneous love for the freedom of the press that one accords to…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom… The subjection of individuals…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

The character of Anglo-American civilization . . . is the product . . . of two perfectly distinct elements that elsewhere have…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

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

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

Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot. How is it possible that society should escape destruction if the moral tie is…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

But one also finds in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to want to bring the…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

“But in America the sovereignty of the people is neither hidden nor sterile as with some other nations; mores recognize it, and…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

“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

It is above all in the present democratic age that the true friends of liberty and human grandeur must remain constantly vigilant…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

“The principle of equality, which makes men independent of each other, gives them a habit and a taste for following, in their…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

There are at the present time two great nations in the world--the Russians and the Americans. The American relies upon his personal…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

Religion in America . . . Must be regarded as the foremost of the political institutions for that country; for if it…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

There is, indeed, a most dangerous passage in the history of a democratic people. When the taste for physical gratifications among them…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

Even despots accept the excellence of liberty. The simple truth is that they wish to keep it for themselves and promote the…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

There is in fact a manly and legitimate passion for equality that spurs all men to wish to be strong and esteemed.…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

“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

“The religionists are the enemies of liberty, and the friends of liberty attack religion; the high-minded and the noble advocate bondage, and…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

“There is a twofold liberty, natural (I mean as our nature is now corrupt) and civil or federal. The first is common…

— Alexis De Tocqueville

“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

“What good does it do me, after all, if an ever-watchful authority keeps an eye out to ensure that my pleasures will…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

Democracy does not create strong ties between people. But it does make living together easier.

— Alexis de Tocqueville

Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.

— Alexis de Tocqueville

No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country.

— Alexis de Tocqueville