Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes - Page 6

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• It is above all in the present democratic age that the true friends of liberty and human grandeur must remain constantly vigilant and ready to prevent the social power from lightly sacrificing the particular rights of a few individuals to the general execution of its designs. In such times there is no citizen so obscure that it is not very dangerous to allow him to be oppressed, and there are no individual rights so unimportant that they can be sacrificed to arbitrariness with impunity.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  True Friend, Sacrifice, Rights

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• Military discipline is merely a perfection of social servitude.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Military, Discipline, Perfection

  Alexis de Tocqueville, Arthur Goldhammer (2004). “Democracy in America”, p.777, Library of America

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• What good does it do me, after all, if an ever-watchful authority keeps an eye out to ensure that my pleasures will be tranquil and races ahead of me to ward off all danger, sparing me the need even to think about such things, if that authority, even as it removes the smallest thorns from my path, is also absolute master of my liberty and my life; if it monopolizes vitality and existence to such a degree that when it languishes, everything around it must also languish; when it sleeps, everything must also sleep; and when it dies, everything must also perish?

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Sleep, Eye, Thinking

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• If an American was condemned to confine his activity to his own affairs, he would be robbed of one half of his existence.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Gossip, Would Be, Half

  Alexis De Tocqueville (2015). “Democracy in America: Book One”, p.478, eKitap Projesi

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• In a revolution, as in a novel, the most difficult part to invent is the end.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Revolution, Rebellious, Invention

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1896). “Recollections”, p.85, Library of Alexandria

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• Men seldom take the opinion of their equal, or of a man like themselves, upon trust.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Men, Opinion, Equal

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1847). “Democracy in America”

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• Grant me thirty years of equal division of inheritances and a free press, and I will provide you with a republic.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Years, India, Division

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• I studied the Koran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as that of Muhammad.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Men, World, Paganism

  "The Tocqueville Reader: A Life in Letters and Politics". Book by Alexis de Tocqueville; edited by Olivier Zunz and Alan S. Kahan, p. 229, 2002.

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• It is far more important to resist apathy than anarchy or despotism, for apathy can give rise, almost indifferently, to either one.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Giving, Important, Apathy

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• America is a land of wonders, in which everything is in constant motion and every change seems an improvement. No natural boundary seems to be set to the efforts of man; and in his eyes what is not yet done is only what he has not attempted to do. - from Democracy in America

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Change, Eye, Men

  Alexis de Tocqueville, Henry Reeve, Francis Bowen, Patrick Renshaw (1998). “Democracy in America”, p.167, Wordsworth Editions

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• To get the inestimable good that freedom of the press assures one must know how to submit to the inevitable evil it gives rise to.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Evil, Giving, Inevitable

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2012). “Democracy in America”, p.175, University of Chicago Press

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• A long war almost always places nations in this sad alternative: that their defeat delivers them to destruction and their triumph to despotism.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  War, Long, Triumph

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2012). “Democracy in America”, p.159, University of Chicago Press

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• 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 love liberty, legality, the respect for rights, but not democracy....liberty is my foremost passion. That is the truth.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Mean, Passion, Rights

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• The taste for well-being is the prominent and indelible feature of democratic times.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Taste, Prosperity, Democratic

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1863). “Democracy in America”, p.30

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• To remain silent is the most useful service that a mediocre speaker can render to the public good.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Silent, Mediocre, Public Good

  Alexis de Tocqueville, Arthur Goldhammer (2004). “Democracy in America”, p.576, Library of America

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• I have always thought it rather interesting to follow the involuntary movements of fear in clever people. Fools coarsely display their cowardice in all its nakedness, but the others are able to cover it with a veil so delicate, so daintily woven with small plausible lies, that there is some pleasure to be found in contemplating this ingenious work of the human intelligence.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Clever, Lying, People

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1896). “Recollections”, p.230, Library of Alexandria

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• I have always noticed in politics how often men are ruined by having too good a memory.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Memories, Men, Ruined

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1995). “Recollections: the French Revolution of 1848”, p.37, Transaction Publishers

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• An American cannot converse, but he can discuss, and his talk falls into a dissertation. He speaks to you as if he was addressing a meeting; and if he should chance to become warm in the discussion, he will say 'Gentlemen' to the person with whom he is conversing.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  War, Fall, Gentleman

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2001). “Democracy in America”, p.102, Penguin

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• Amongst democratic nations, each new generation is a new people.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  People, Generations, Democratic

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2016). “Democracy in America”, p.539, Xist Publishing

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• There are at the present time two great nations in the world - allude to the Russians and the Americans. All other nations seem to have nearly reached their national limits, and have only to maintain their power; these alone are proceeding along a path to which no limit can be perceived.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Two, World, Limits

  "Democracy in America". Book by Alexis de Tocqueville. Chapter XVIII, 1835.

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• Born often under another sky, placed in the middle of an always moving scene, himself driven by the irresistible torrent which draws all about him, the American has no time to tie himself to anything, he grows accustomed only to change, and ends by regarding it as the natural state of man. He feels the need of it, more he loves it; for the instability; instead of meaning disaster to him, seems to give birth only to miracles all about him.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Love, Change, Moving

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

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Equality, Egalitarianism, Imagination

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1847). “Democracy in America”

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• Consider any individual at any period of his life, and you will always find him preoccupied with fresh plans to increase his comfort.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Air, Individuality, Comfort

  "Democracy in America". Book by Alexis de Tocqueville, Volume II. Book Three, Chapter XXI, 1840.

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• I should have loved freedom, I believe, at all times, but in the time in which we live I am ready to worship it.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Believe, Should Have, Liberty

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1847). “Democracy in America”

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• The position of the Americans is quite exceptional, and it may be believed that no democratic people will ever be placed in a similar one.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  People, May, Democratic

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2003). “Democracy in America”, p.440, Barnes & Noble Publishing

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