Men are not corrupted by the exercise of power or debased by the habit of obedience, but by the exercise of a… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
Two things in America are astonishing: the changeableness of most human behavior and the strange stability of certain principles. Men are constantly… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
What is most important for democracy is not that great fortunes should not exist, but that great fortunes should not remain in… — 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
Rulers who destroy men's freedom commonly begin by trying to retain its forms. ... They cherish the illusion that they can combine… — 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
The aspect of American society is animated, because men and things are always changing; but it is monotonous, because all the changes… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
In the principle of equality I very clearly discern two tendencies; one leading the mind of every man to untried thoughts, the… — 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… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
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 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
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
Not only does democracy make every man forget his ancestors, but also clouds their view of their descendants and isolates them from… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
It is almost never when a state of things is the most detestable that it is smashed, but when, beginning to improve,… — 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 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
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
When a monarchy gradually transforms itself into a republic, the executive power there preserves titles, honors, respect, and even money long after… — 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
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
On this waterlogged landscape…are scattered palaces and hovels…It is here that the human spirit becomes perfect, and at the same time brutalised,… — 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. — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
It is the dissimilarities and inequalities among men which give rise to the notion of honor; as such differences become less, it… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
I know of no other country where love of money has such a grip on men's hearts or where stronger scorn is… — 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
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
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
The taste which men have for liberty and that which they feel for equality are, in fact, two different things...among democratic nations… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
What chiefly diverts the men of democracies from lofty ambition is not the scantiness of their fortunes, but the vehemence of the… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
If men are to remain civilized or to become so, the art of associating together must grow and improve in the same… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
The happy and powerful do not go into exile, and there are no surer guarantees of equality among men than poverty and… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
I see no clear reason why the doctrine of self-interest properly understood should turn men away from religious beliefs. — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
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
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 Copy Share Image
In cities men cannot be prevented from concerting together, and from awakening a mutual excitement which prompts sudden and passionate resolutions. Cities… — 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
Among the droves of men with political ambitions in the United States, I found very few with that virile candor, that manly… — 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
I cannot help fearing that men may reach a point where they look on every new theory as a danger, every innovation… — 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
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
