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 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
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 Copy Share Image
There is, in fact, a manly and lawful passion for equality which excites men to wish all to be powerful and honored.… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
A man's admiration for absolute government is proportionate to the contempt he feels for those around him. — 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
No men are less addicted to reverie than the citizens of a democracy. — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
The main business of religions is to purify, control, and restrain that excessive and exclusive taste for well-being which men acquire in… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
Nations, as well as man, almost always betray the most prominent features of their future destiny in their earliest years. When I… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
Men cannot abandon their religious faith without a kind of aberration of intellect and a sort of violent distortion of their true… — 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
It would seem that if despotism were to be established among the democratic nations of our days, it might assume a different… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
There is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in… — 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 the absence of government each man learns to think, to act for himself, without counting on the support of an outside… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
All revolutions more or less threaten the tenure of property: but most of those who live in democratic countries are possessed of… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
In democratic countries, however opulent a man is supposed to be, he is almost always discontented with his fortune, because he finds… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
I do not find fault with equality for drawing men into the pursuit of forbidden pleasures, but for absorbing them entirely in… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
By obliging men to turn their attention to other affairs than their own, it rubs off that private selfishness which is the… — 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
