Government Quotes by Alexis de Tocqueville

The most dangerous moment for a bad government is when it begins to reform.

— Alexis de Tocqueville

Every central government worships uniformity: uniformity relieves it from inquiry into an infinity of details.

— Alexis de Tocqueville

In other words, a democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

When the people rule, they must be rendered happy, or they will overturn the state.

— Alexis de Tocqueville

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

A man's admiration for absolute government is proportionate to the contempt he feels for those around him.

— Alexis de Tocqueville

“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

One of the happiest consequences of the absence of government...is the development of individual strength that inevitably follows.

— Alexis de Tocqueville

To commit violent and unjust acts, it is not enough for a government to have the will or even the power; the…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

Every central government worships uniformity: uniformity relieves it from inquiry into an infinity of details, which must be attended to if rules…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

We can state with conviction, therefore, that a man's support for absolute government is in direct proportion to the contempt he feels…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

At the head of any new undertaking where in France you would find the government, or in England some great lord, in…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

The more government takes the place of associations, the more will individuals lose the idea of forming associations and need the government…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

There is hardly a congressman prepared to go home until he has at least one speech printed and sent to his constituents,…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

The most perilous moment for a bad government is when it seeks to mend its ways. Only consummate statecraft can enable a…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

The regime which is destroyed by a revolution is almost always an improvement on its immediate predecessor, and experience teaches that the…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

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

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

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

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

It is indeed difficult to imagine how men who have entirely renounced the habit of managing their own affairs could be successful…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

In the absence of government each man learns to think, to act for himself, without counting on the support of an outside…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

Every nation that has ended in tyranny has come to that end by way of good order. It certainly does not follow…

— 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

What is understood by republican government in the United States is the slow and quiet action of society upon itself.

— Alexis de Tocqueville

“The most perilous moment for a bad government is one when it seeks to mend its ways.”

— Alexis de Tocqueville

“Nothing is more striking to an European traveller in the United States than the absence of what we term the Government, or…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

A man's admiration of absolute government is proportionate to the contempt he feels for those around him.

— Alexis de Tocqueville

On close inspection, we shall find that religion, and not fear, has ever been the cause of the long-lived prosperity of an…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

Religion, which never intervenes directly in the government of American society, should therefore be considered as the first of their political institutions

— Alexis de Tocqueville