Tyranny Quotes by Alexis de Tocqueville

10 Tyranny quotes by Alexis de Tocqueville

All Tyranny quotes Alexis de Tocqueville’s page

Tocqueville’s keen observations on power dynamics surface in these ten brief lines about tyranny. The snippets reflect his analytical eye, offering a quick window into his classic insights.

Rate this collection: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet

Despotism can do without faith but freedom cannot.

Alexis de Tocqueville

Image

[T]he main evil of the present democratic institutions of the united states does not raise, as is often asserted in Europe, from…

Alexis de Tocqueville

Image

“In my opinion the main evil of the present democratic institutions of the United States does not arise, as is often asserted…

Alexis de Tocqueville

Image

“The foremost, or indeed the sole condition, which is required in order to succeed in centralizing the supreme power in a democratic…

Alexis de Tocqueville

Image

The first who attracts the eye, the first in enlightenment, in power and in happiness, is the white man, the European, man…

Alexis de Tocqueville

Image

“Another tendency, which is extremely natural to democratic nations and extremely dangerous, is that which leads them to despise and undervalue the…

Alexis de Tocqueville

Image

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

Image

“Princes had, so to speak, turned violence into a physical thing but our democratic republics have made it into something as intellectual…

Alexis de Tocqueville

Image

“ Tyranny in democratic republics does not proceed in the same way, however. It ignores the body and goes straight for the…

Alexis de Tocqueville

Image

“Our contemporaries are constantly excited by two conflicting passions; they want to be led, and they wish to remain free: as they…

Alexis de Tocqueville

Image

Other authors on Tyranny

More by Alexis de Tocqueville

All around you everything is on the move,

Alexis de Tocqueville

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Image

The more alike men are, the weaker each feels in the face of all.

Alexis de Tocqueville

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

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

Image

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

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, that civilisation…

Alexis de Tocqueville

Image

“Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot.”

Alexis de Tocqueville

Image