Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes - Page 7

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• It would seem that if despotism were to be established among the democratic nations of our days, it might assume a different character; it would be more extensive and more mild; it would degrade men without tormenting them. I do not question that, in an age of instruction and equality like our own, sovereigns might more easily succeed in collecting all political power into their own hands and might interfere more habitually and decidedly with the circle of private interests than any sovereign of antiquity could ever do.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Character, Men, Hands

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2015). “Democracy in America - Vol. I. and II.”, p.760, Read Books Ltd

  16 Copy quote

• 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 great career and feel that he has been called to no common destiny. But this is a delusion which experience quickly corrects.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Depressing, Destiny, Men

  6 Copy quote

• The more alike men are, the weaker each feels in the face of all.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Men, Faces, Feels

  Alexis De Tocqueville (2004). “Democracy in America: The Complete and Unabridged Volumes I and II”, p.29, Bantam Classics

  7 Copy quote

• It profits me but little, after all, that a vigilant authority always protects the tranquility of my pleasures and constantly averts all dangers from my path, without my care or concern, if this same authority is the absolute master of my liberty and my life.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Liberty, Care, Littles

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1870). “American Institutions”, p.116

  14 Copy quote

• You need not value it yourself if you do not wish to; but you ought to allow it to us who do value it.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Wish, Atheism, Needs

  7 Copy quote

• Society was cut in two: those who had nothing united in common envy; those who had anything united in common terror.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Cutting, Two, Envy

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1995). “Recollections: the French Revolution of 1848”, p.98, Transaction Publishers

  7 Copy quote

• The tie of language is perhaps the strongest and the most durable that can unite mankind.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Ties, Language, Mankind

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2003). “Democracy in America”, p.22, Regnery Publishing

  19 Copy quote

• Despotism may be able to do without religion, but democracy cannot.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Christian, Religious, Democracy

  4 Copy quote

• Among a democratic people, where there is no hereditary wealth, every man works to earn a living, or is born of parents who have worked. The notion of labor is therefore presented to the mind, on every side, as the necessary, natural, and honest condition.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Work, Men, People

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1863). “Democracy in America”, p.184

  5 Copy quote

• There is hardly a pioneer's hut which does not contain a few odd volumes of Shakespeare. I remember reading the feudal drama of Henry V for the first time in a log cabin.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Education, Drama, Reading

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1840). “Democracy in America”, p.55

  13 Copy quote

• Every central government worships uniformity: uniformity relieves it from inquiry into an infinity of details, which must be attended to if rules have to be adapted to different men, instead of indiscriminately subjecting all men to the same rule.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Men, Details, Different

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1863). “Democracy in America”, p.363

  10 Copy quote

• The main business of religions is to purify, control, and restrain that excessive and exclusive taste for well-being which men acquire in times of equality.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Business, Equality, Men

  "Democracy in America". Book by Alexis de Tocqueville, Volume II. Book One, Chapter V, 1840.

  17 Copy quote

• When the people rule, they must be rendered happy, or they will overturn the state.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  People, Revolution, Rebellion

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2001). “Democracy in America”, p.129, Penguin

  6 Copy quote

• 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, the simplicity of rural life, and the rusticity of the villager have not been preserved among them; and they are alike unacquainted with the virtues, the vices, the coarse habits, and the simple graces of an early stage of civilization.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Ignorance, Simple, Civilization

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2015). “Democracy in America - Vol. I. and II.”, p.336, Read Books Ltd

  10 Copy quote

• The evil which one suffers patiently as inevitable seems insupportable as soon as he conceives the idea of escaping from it.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Escaping, Ideas, Evil

  11 Copy quote

• The Americans make associations to give entertainment, to found seminaries, to build inns, to construct churches, to diffuse books, to send missionaries to the antipodes; in this manner, they found hospitals, prisons and schools.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Book, School, Giving

  53 Copy quote

• The power of the periodical press is second only to that of the people.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Power, People, Presses

  Alexis De Tocqueville (1863). “Democracy In America -- Vol. 1”, p.239

  7 Copy quote

• History, it is easily perceived, is a picture-gallery containing a host of copies and very few originals.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Host, Gallery, Copies

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2013). “The Old Regime and the Revolution: The controversial bestselling guide to the origins of the French Revolution”, p.100, Harriman House Limited

  6 Copy quote

• 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 one in his pocket.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Class, Pockets, Watches

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

  8 Copy quote

• Furthermore, when citizens are all almost equal, it becomes difficult for them to defend their independence against the aggressions of power.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Independence, Citizens, Difficult

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

  6 Copy quote

• I am obliged to confess that I do not regard the abolition of slavery as a means of warding off the struggle of the two races in the Southern states. The Negroes may long remain slaves without complaining; but if they are once raised to the level of freemen, they will soon revolt at being deprived of almost all their civil rights; and as they cannot become the equals of the whites, they will speedily show themselves as enemies.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  War, Struggle, Mean

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1862). “Democracy in America”, p.486

  8 Copy quote

• By obliging men to turn their attention to other affairs than their own, it rubs off that private selfishness which is the rust of society.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Men, Law, Selfishness

  Alexis de Tocqueville (1863). “Democracy in America”, p.364

  4 Copy quote

• But one also finds in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to want to bring the strong down to their level, and which reduces men to preferring equality in servitude to inequality in freedom.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Strong, Heart, Men

  "Democracy in America" by Alexis de Tocqueville, Volume I, Chapter III, Part I, 1835.

  4 Copy quote

• 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 with complacency how an enlightened regard for themselves constantly prompts them to assist each other, and inclines them willingly to sacrifice a portion of their time and property to the welfare of the state.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Sacrifice, Principles, Complacency

  Alexis De Tocqueville (2004). “Democracy in America: The Complete and Unabridged Volumes I and II”, p.440, Bantam Classics

  10 Copy quote

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

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Men, Law, Constraints

  Alexis De Tocqueville (2004). “Democracy in America: The Complete and Unabridged Volumes I and II”, p.498, Bantam Classics

  4 Copy quote

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