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 Copy Share Image
The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens. — 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
Americans of all ages, all stations of life, and all types of disposition are forever forming associations...In democratic countries knowledge of how… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
The foremost or indeed sole condition required in order to succeed in centralizing the supreme power in a democratic community is to… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
Muhammad professed to derive from Heaven, and he has inserted in the Koran, not only a body of religious doctrines, but political… — 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
Men living in democratic times have many passions, but most of their passions either end in the love of riches, or proceed… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
In democratic countries as well as elsewhere most of the branches of productive industry are carried on at a small cost by… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
If a [democratic] society displays less brilliance than an aristocracy, there will also be less wretchedness; pleasures will be less outrageous and… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
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
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
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
Amongst democratic nations, each new generation is a new people. — 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
Amongst democratic nations men easily attain a certain equality of conditions: they can never attain the equality they desire. It perpetually retires… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
The debates of that great assembly are frequently vague and perplexed, seeming to be dragged rather than to march, to the intended… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it. — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country. — 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
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 Copy Share Image
I am far from denying that newspapers in democratic countries lead citizens to do very ill-considered things in common; but without newspapers… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
The taste for well-being is the prominent and indelible feature of democratic times. — 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
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
The more alike men are, the weaker each feels in the face of all. — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
“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 Image
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 Image