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More Quotes by Alexis de Tocqueville
- 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…
- Better use has been made of association and this powerful instrument of action has been applied for more varied aims in America than anywhere else…
- When, after having examined in detail the organization of the Supreme Court, one comes to consider in sum the prerogatives that have been given it,…
- I avow that I do not hold that complete and instantaneous love for the freedom of the press that one accords to things whose nature…
- The more I view the independence of the press in its principal effects, the more I convince myself that among the moderns the independence of…
- I am far from denying that newspapers in democratic countries lead citizens to do very ill-considered things in common; but without newspapers there would be…
- It is almost never when a state of things is the most detestable that it is smashed, but when, beginning to improve, it permits men…
- Nothing is more annoying in the ordinary intercourse of life than this irritable patriotism of the Americans. A foreigner will gladly agree to praise much…
- There is no philosopher in the world so great but he believes a million things on the faith of other people and accepts a great…
- The Americans never use the word peasant, because they have no idea of the class which that term denotes; the ignorance of more remote ages,…
- A French observer is surprised to hear how often an English or an American lawyer quotes the opinions of others, and how little he alludes…
- In America, more than anywhere else in the world, care has been taken constantly to trace clearly distinct spheres of action for the two sexes,…
- I am deeply convinced that any permanent, regular administrative system whose aim is to provide for the needs of the poor will breed more miseries…
- It is far more important to resist apathy than anarchy or despotism, for apathy can give rise, almost indifferently, to either one.
- In democracies, nothing is more great or more brilliant than commerce: it attracts the attention of the public, and fills the imagination of the multitude;…
- There is, indeed, a most dangerous passage in the history of a democratic people. When the taste for physical gratifications among them has grown more…
- Those which we call necessary institutions are simply no more than institutions to which we have become accustomed.
- The last thing abandoned by a party is its phraseology, because among political parties, as elsewhere, the vulgar make the language, and the vulgar abandon…
- If a [democratic] society displays less brilliance than an aristocracy, there will also be less wretchedness; pleasures will be less outrageous and wellbeing will be…
- The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.
- In no other country in the world is the love of property keener or more alert than in the United States, and nowhere else does…
- The genius of democracies is seen not only in the great number of new words introduced but even more in the new ideas they express.
- Nothing seems at first sight less important than the outward form of human actions, yet there is nothing upon which men set more store: they…
- Every nation that has ended in tyranny has come to that end by way of good order. It certainly does not follow from this that…
- Men cannot abandon their religious faith without a kind of aberration of intellect and a sort of violent distortion of their true nature; they are…
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- I'm hoping someday that some kid, black or white, will hit more home runs than myself. Whoever it is, I'd be pulling… — Hank Aaron
- The more dubious and uncertain an instrument violence has become in international relations, the more it has gained in reputation and appeal… — Hannah Arendt
- No punishment has ever possessed enough power of deterrence to prevent the commission of crimes. On the contrary, whatever the punishment, once… — Hannah Arendt
- I believe more in precision, when you have the capability, like when you see a mosquito fly and you're able to hit… — Alexis Arguello
- As a kid, 'Star Wars' was much more my thing than 'Star Trek' was. — J. J. Abrams
- I believe in anything that will engage the audience and make the story more effective. — J. J. Abrams
- Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those… — Aristotle
- All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire. — Aristotle
- Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own. — Aristotle
- In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of… — Aristotle
- Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular. — Aristotle
- The whole is more than the sum of its parts. — Aristotle