Nothing is so dangerous as that of violence employed by well-meaning people for beneficial objects. — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
Amongst democratic nations, each new generation is a new people. — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
Those that despise people will never get the best out of others and themselves. — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
The power of the periodical press is second only to that of the people. — 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
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
When the people rule, they must be rendered happy, or they will overturn the state. — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
How could a society escape destruction if, when political ties are relaxed, moral ties are not tightened, and what can be done… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
I cannot believe that a republic could subsist if the influence of the lawyers in public business did not increase in proportion… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
Lawyers belong to the people by birth and interest, and to the aristocracy by habit and taste; they may be looked upon… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
The position of the Americans is quite exceptional, and it may be believed that no democratic people will ever be placed in… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
There is no philosopher in the world so great but he believes a million things on the faith of other people and… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
With much care and skill power has been broken into fragments in the American township, so that the maximum possible number of… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
Laws are always unstable unless they are founded on the manners of a nation; and manners are the only durable and resisting… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
Useful undertakings which require sustained attention and vigorous precision in order to succeed often end up by being abandoned, for, in America,… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
Among a democratic people, where there is no hereditary wealth, every man works to earn a living, or is born of parents… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
In towns it is impossible to prevent men from assembling, getting excited together and forming sudden passionate resolves. Towns are like great… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
When, after having examined in detail the organization of the Supreme Court, one comes to consider in sum the prerogatives that have… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
The Union was formed by the voluntary agreement of the States; and these, in uniting together, have not forfeited their Nationality, nor… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
It would seem as if the rulers of our time sought only to use men in order to make things great; I… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
Society will develop a new kind of servitude which covers the surface of society with a network of complicated rules, through which… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
When the taste for physical gratifications among them has grown more rapidly than their education . . . the time will come… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
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 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
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 Copy Share Image
The people reign over the American political world as God rules over the universe. It is the cause and the end of… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
The civil jury is the most effective form of sovereignty of the people. It defies the aggressions of time and man. During… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
When I refuse to obey an unjust law, I do not contest the right of the majority to command, but I simply… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
In America, conscription is unknown; men are enlisted for payment. Compulsory recruitment is so alien to the ideas and so foreign to… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
The public, therefore, among a democratic people, has a singular power, which aristocratic nations cannot conceive; for it does not persuade others… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
I have always thought it rather interesting to follow the involuntary movements of fear in clever people. Fools coarsely display their cowardice… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
Local assemblies of the people constitute the strength of free nations. Municipal institutions are to liberty what primary schools are to science:… — 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
