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
In the United States the sovereign authority is religious, and consequently hypocrisy must be common; but there is no country in the… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
When fortune has been abolished, when every profession is open to everyone, an ambitious man may think it is easy to launch… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
Among the laws controlling human societies there is one more precise and clearer, it seems to me, than all the others. If… — 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
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
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
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
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
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
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
It must not be forgotten that it is especially dangerous to enslave men in the minor details of life. For my part,… — 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
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
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
