The most dangerous moment for a bad government is when it begins to reform. — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
“patriotism and religion are the only two motives in the world which can permanently direct the whole of a body politic to… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
Every central government worships uniformity: uniformity relieves it from inquiry into an infinity of details. — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
“to be a government of "liberty regulated by law," with such results in the development of strength, in population, wealth, and military… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Nations are less disposed to make revolutions in proportion as personal property is augmented and distributed among them, and as the number… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
As for me, I am deeply a democrat; this is why I am in no way a socialist. Democracy and socialism cannot… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
The nations of our time cannot prevent the conditions of men from becoming equal, but it depends upon themselves whether the principle… — 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
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 Copy Share Image
Religion in America . . . Must be regarded as the foremost of the political institutions for that country; for if it… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
The people reign over the American political world as God rules over the universe. It is the cause and the end of… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
There is no country in the world in which everything can be provided for by the laws, or in which political institutions… — Alexis de Tocqueville Copy Share Image
In the United States, if a political character attacks a sect, this may not prevent even the partisans of that very sect,… — 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
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 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