Alexis de Tocqueville

The genius of democracies is seen not only in the great number of new words introduced but even more in the new…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

“nothing, on the other hand, can be more impenetrable to the uninitiated than a legislation founded upon precedents.”

— Alexis de Tocqueville

In the United States, associations are established to promote the public safety, commerce, industry, morality, and religion. There is no end which…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

Generally speaking, only simple conceptions can grip the mind of a nation. An idea that is clear and precise even though false…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

“Aristocracy naturally leads the human mind to the contemplation of the past, and fixes it there. Democracy, on the contrary, gives men…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

“When a legislator succeeds, after persevering efforts, in exercising an indirect influence upon the destiny of nations, his genius is lauded by…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

“The territorial aristocracy of former ages was either bound by law, or thought itself bound by usage, to come to the relief…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

“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

Nothing is more wonderful than the art of being free, but nothing is harder to learn how to use than freedom.

— Alexis de Tocqueville

A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.

— Alexis de Tocqueville

The character of Anglo-American civilization . . . is the product . . . of two perfectly distinct elements that elsewhere have…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

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

To build enormous palaces, to conquer or to mimic nature, to ransack the world in order to gratify the passions of a…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

One of the most ordinary weaknesses of the human intellect is to seek to reconcile contrary principles, and to purchase peace at…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

Because Roman civilization perished through barbarian invasions, we are perhaps too much inclined to think that that is the only way a…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

The world belongs to those with the most energy.

— Alexis de Tocqueville

When a monarchy gradually transforms itself into a republic, the executive power there preserves titles, honors, respect, and even money long after…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country.

— Alexis de Tocqueville

Step back in time; look closely at the child in the very arms of his mother; see the external world reflected for…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

Nature secretly avenges herself for the constraint imposed upon her by the laws of man.

— Alexis de Tocqueville

I have an intellectual inclination for democratic institutions, but I am instinctively an aristocrat, which means that I despise and fear the…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

everybody feels the evil, but no one has courage or energy enough to seek the cure

— Alexis de Tocqueville

“During my stay in the United States, I witnessed the spontaneous formation of committees in a country for the pursuit and prosecution…

— Alexis de Tocqueville

The principle of equality does not destroy the imagination, but lowers its flight to the level of the earth.

— Alexis de Tocqueville

When none but the wealthy had watches, they were almost all very good ones; few are now made which are worth much,…

— Alexis de Tocqueville