Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes - Page 13

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• When the reality of power has been surrendered, it's playing a dangerous game to seek to retain the appearance of it; the external aspect of vigor can sometimes support a debilitated body, but most often it manages to deal it the final blow.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Blow, Power, Reality

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• The taste which men have for liberty and that which they feel for equality are, in fact, two different things...among democratic nations they are two unequal things.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Men, Two, Liberty

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• The first who attracts the eye, the first in enlightenment, in power and in happiness, is the white man, the European, man par excellence; below him appear the Negro and the Indian. These two unfortunate races have neither birth, nor face, nor language, nor mores in common; only their misfortunes look alike. Both occupy an equally inferior position in the country that they inhabit; both experience the effects of tyranny; and if their miseries are different, they can accuse the same author for them.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Country, Eye, Men

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2012). “Democracy in America”, p.303, University of Chicago Press

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• A state of equality is perhaps less elevated, but it is more just; and its justice constitutes its greatness and beauty.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Greatness, Justice, States

  Alexis De Tocqueville (2004). “Democracy in America: The Complete and Unabridged Volumes I and II”, p.591, Bantam Classics

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• What chiefly diverts the men of democracies from lofty ambition is not the scantiness of their fortunes, but the vehemence of the exertions they daily make to improve them.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Ambition, Men, Democracy

  Alexis De Tocqueville (2004). “Democracy in America: The Complete and Unabridged Volumes I and II”, p.528, Bantam Classics

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• When a monarchy gradually transforms itself into a republic, the executive power there preserves titles, honors, respect, and even money long after it has lost the reality of power. The English, having cut off the head of one of their kings and chased another off the throne, still go on their knees to address the successors of those princes. On the other hand, when a republic falls under one man's yoke, the ruler's demeanor remains simple, unaffected, and modest, as if he had not already been raised above everybody.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Kings, Fall, Cutting

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1990). “Democracy in America”

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• In democratic countries as well as elsewhere most of the branches of productive industry are carried on at a small cost by men little removed by their wealth or education above the level of those whom they employ.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Country, Men, Cost

  Alexis De Tocqueville (2004). “Democracy in America: The Complete and Unabridged Volumes I and II”, p.488, Bantam Classics

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• In democratic centuries, on the contrary, when the duties of each individual toward the species are much clearer, devotion toward one man becomes rarer: the bond of human affections is extended and loosened.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Men, Democracy, Affection

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2012). “Democracy in America”, p.483, University of Chicago Press

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• Amongst democratic nations men easily attain a certain equality of conditions: they can never attain the equality they desire. It perpetually retires from before them, yet without hiding itself from their sight, and in retiring draws them on. At every moment they think they are about to grasp it; it escapes at every moment from their hold. They are near enough to see its charms, but too far off to enjoy them; and before they have fully tasted its delights they die.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Men, Thinking, Sight

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2003). “Democracy in America”, p.494, Regnery Publishing

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• In politics a community of hatred is almost always the foundation of friendships.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Community, Hatred, Foundation

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1896). “Recollections”, p.110, Library of Alexandria

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• Nations, as well as man, almost always betray the most prominent features of their future destiny in their earliest years.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Destiny, Men, Years

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1991). “Democracy in America”, p.436, Рипол Классик

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