"If it be admitted that a man, possessing……" — Alexis de Tocqueville
"If it be admitted that a man, possessing absolute power, may misuse that power by wronging his adversaries, why should a majority not be liable to the same reproach? Men are not apt to change their character by agglomeration; nor does their patience in the presence of obstacles increase with the consciousness of their strength. And for these reasons I can never willingly invest any number of my fellow creatures with that unlimited authority which I should refuse to any one of them."
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Alexis de Tocqueville
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257 Quotes by Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville has 257 quotes on this site.
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When fortune has been abolished, when every profession is open to everyone, an ambitious man may think it is easy…
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Nothing is so dangerous as that of violence employed by well-meaning people for beneficial objects.
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If an American was condemned to confine his activity to his own affairs, he would be robbed of one half…
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I studied the Quran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction that by and large…
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Muhammad professed to derive from Heaven, and he has inserted in the Koran, not only a body of religious doctrines,…
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The aspect of American society is animated, because men and things are always changing; but it is monotonous, because all…
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When none but the wealthy had watches, they were almost all very good ones; few are now made which are…
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Whatever may be the general endeavor of a community to render its members equal and alike, the personal pride of…
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Freedom sees in religion the companion of its struggles and its triumphs, the cradle of its infancy, the divine source…
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When the people rule, they must be rendered happy, or they will overturn the state.
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Chance does nothing that has not been prepared beforehand.
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The most dangerous moment for a bad government is when it begins to reform.
See all 257 quotes by Alexis de Tocqueville »
More Absolute Quotes
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Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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A jealous lover of human liberty, deeming it the absolute condition of all that we admire and respect in humanity,…
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But I recognize no infallible authority, even in special questions; consequently, whatever respect I may have for the honesty and…
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Absolute liberty is absence of restraint; responsibility is restraint; therefore, the ideally free individual is responsible to himself.
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No sex, age, or condition is above or below the absolute necessity of modesty; but without it one vastly beneath…
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Representation of the world, like the world itself, is the work of men; they describe it from their own point…
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It is old age, rather than death, that is to be contrasted with life. Old age is life's parody, whereas…
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The truth, the absolute truth, is that the chief beauty for the theatre consists in fine bodily proportions.
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The Prime Minister has an absolute genius for putting flamboyant labels on empty luggage.
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Once the last trace of emotion has been eradicated, nothing remains of thought but absolute tautology.
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