All Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes
- When fortune has been abolished, when every profession is open to everyone, an ambitious man may think it is easy to launch himself on a… Abolished
- Nothing is so dangerous as that of violence employed by well-meaning people for beneficial objects. Beneficial
- If an American was condemned to confine his activity to his own affairs, he would be robbed of one half of his existence. Activity
- I studied the Quran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction that by and large there have been few religions… Absurd
- Muhammad professed to derive from Heaven, and he has inserted in the Koran, not only a body of religious doctrines, but political maxims, civil and… Age
- The aspect of American society is animated, because men and things are always changing; but it is monotonous, because all the changes are alike. Alike
- When none but the wealthy had watches, they were almost all very good ones; few are now made which are worth much, but everybody has… All
- Whatever may be the general endeavor of a community to render its members equal and alike, the personal pride of individuals will always seek to… Advantage
- Freedom sees in religion the companion of its struggles and its triumphs, the cradle of its infancy, the divine source of its rights. It considers… Companion
- When the people rule, they must be rendered happy, or they will overturn the state. Happy
- Chance does nothing that has not been prepared beforehand. Been
- The most dangerous moment for a bad government is when it begins to reform. Bad
- The man who asks of freedom anything other than itself is born to be a slave. Asks
- Every central government worships uniformity: uniformity relieves it from inquiry into an infinity of details. Central
- I have an intellectual inclination for democratic institutions, but I am instinctively an aristocrat, which means that I despise and fear the masses. I passionately… Aristocrat
- [Liberty] considers religion as the safeguard of morality, and morality as the best security of law and the surest pledge of the duration of freedom. Best
- I shall not fear to say that the doctrine of self-interest rightly understood seems to me of all the philosophic theories the most appropriate to… Adopt
- The Americans, on the contrary, are fond of explaining almost all the actions of their lives by the principle of interest rightly understood; they show… Action
- It's not an endlessly expanding list of rights - the "right" to education, the "right" to health care, the "right" to food and housing. That's… Barn
- I should have loved freedom, I believe, at all times, but in the time in which we live I am ready to worship it. All