Local assemblies of the people con stitute the strength of free nations.—Municipal institutions are to liberty, what primary schools are to science: they bring it within the people’s reach, and teach them how to use and enjoy it—A nation may establish a system of free government, but without the spirit of municipal institutions it cannot have the spirit of liberty.
—Alexis de Tocqueville
Topics: People
When an opinion has taken root in a democracy and established itself in the minds of the majority, if afterward persists by itself, needing no effort to maintain it since no one attacks it. Those who at first rejected it as false come in the end to adopt it as accepted, and even those who still at the bottom of their hearts oppose it keep their views to themselves, taking great care to avoid a dangerous and futile contest.
—Alexis de Tocqueville
Topics: Religion
Two things in America are astonishing: the changeableness of most human behavior and the strange stability of certain principles. Men are constantly on the move, but the spirit of humanity seems almost unmoved.
—Alexis de Tocqueville
Topics: America
Calvinism is a democratic and republican religion.
—Alexis de Tocqueville
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
Topics: Work
I cannot help fearing that men may reach a point where they look on every new theory as a danger, every innovation as a toilsome trouble, every social advance as a first step toward revolution, and that they may absolutely refuse to move at all for fear of being carried off their feet. The prospect really does frighten me that they may finally become so engrossed in a cowardly love of immediate pleasures that their interest in their own future and in that of their descendants may vanish, and that they will prefer tamely to follow the course of their destiny rather than make a sudden energetic effort necessary to set things right.
—Alexis de Tocqueville
Topics: Apathy
The institution of the jury, if confined to criminal cases, is always in danger; but when once it is introduced into civil proceedings, it defies the aggressions of time and of man.
—Alexis de Tocqueville
Not only does democracy make every man forget his ancestors, but also clouds their view of their descendants and isolates them from their contemporaries. Each man is for ever thrown back on himself alone, and there is danger that he may be shut up in the solitude of his own heart.
—Alexis de Tocqueville
Topics: Isolation, Solitude
Scarcely any political question arises in the United States that is not resolved, sooner or later, into a judicial question.
—Alexis de Tocqueville
Topics: Lawyers, Law
There are two things which will always be very difficult for a democratic nation: to start a war and to end it.
—Alexis de Tocqueville
Topics: War
It is the dissimilarities and inequalities among men which give rise to the notion of honor; as such differences become less, it grows feeble; and when they disappear, it will vanish too.
—Alexis de Tocqueville
Topics: Honor
Remember that life is neither pain nor pleasure; it is serious business, to be entered upon with courage and in a spirit of self-sacrifice.
—Alexis de Tocqueville
Topics: Courage to Begin, Joy, Generations, Life
To commit violent and unjust acts, it is not enough for a government to have the will or even the power; the habits, ideas and passions of the time must lend themselves to their committal.
—Alexis de Tocqueville
Topics: Government
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
Topics: Class
I have no hesitation in saying that although the American woman never leaves her domestic sphere and is in some respects very dependent within it, nowhere does she enjoy a higher station. And if anyone asks me what I think the chief cause of the extraordinary prosperity and growing power of this nation, I should answer that it is due to the superiority of their women.
—Alexis de Tocqueville
Topics: Women
Though it is very important for man as an individual that his religion should be true, that is not the case for society. Society has nothing to fear or hope from another life; what is most important for it is not that all citizens profess the true religion but that they should profess religion.
—Alexis de Tocqueville
By and large the literature of a democracy will never exhibit the order, regularity, skill, and art characteristic of aristocratic literature; formal qualities will be neglected or actually despised. The style will often be strange, incorrect, overburdened, and loose, and almost always strong and bold. Writers will be more anxious to work quickly than to perfect details. Short works will be commoner than long books, wit than erudition, imagination than depth. There will be a rude and untutored vigor of thought with great variety and singular fecundity. Authors will strive to astonish more than to please, and to stir passions rather than to charm taste.
—Alexis de Tocqueville
Topics: Books, Literature
Grant me thirty years of equal division of inheritances and a free press, and I will provide you with a republic.
—Alexis de Tocqueville
Topics: Government
By birth and interest lawyers belong to the people; by habit and taste to the aristocracy; and they may be looked upon as the natural bond and connecting link of the two great classes of society.—They are attached to public order beyond every other consideration, and the best security of public order is authority.—If they prize the free institutions of their country much, they value the legality of these institutions far more.—They are less afraid of tyranny than of arbitrary power.
—Alexis de Tocqueville
Topics: Lawyers
As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of everything in this world only in the answer to this single question: how much money will it bring in?
—Alexis de Tocqueville
Topics: Profit
In countries where associations are free, secret societies are unknown. In America there are factions, but no conspiracies.
—Alexis de Tocqueville
Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot. How is it possible that society should escape destruction if the moral tie is not strengthened in proportion as the political tie is relaxed? And what can be done with a people who are their own masters if they are not submissive to the Deity?
—Alexis de Tocqueville
Topics: Faith
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
Topics: Opportunity
We succeed in enterprises which demand the positive qualities we possess, but we excel in those which can also make use of our defects.
—Alexis de Tocqueville
Topics: Aptness, Abilities, Success, Work, Self-Knowledge, Appropriateness, Talents, Excellence
In other words, 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
Topics: Taxes, Taxation
As a general truth, nothing is more opposed to the well-being and freedom of men, than vast empires.
—Alexis de Tocqueville
Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.
—Alexis de Tocqueville
Topics: Americans
Nothing is quite so wretchedly corrupt as an aristocracy which has lost its power but kept its wealth and which still has endless leisure to devote to nothing but banal enjoyments. All its great thoughts and passionate energy are things of the past, and nothing but a host of petty, gnawing vices now cling to it like worms to a corpse.
—Alexis de Tocqueville
Topics: Aristocracy
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 majority display less inclination toward doctrines which in any way threaten the way property is owned.
—Alexis de Tocqueville
Topics: Property
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
Topics: Religion
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand French Writer, Statesman
- Michel Foucault French Philosopher
- Edgar Quinet French Intellectual
- Charles Forbes Rene de Montalembert French Historian, Politician
- Montesquieu French Political Philosopher
- Alfred de Musset French Poet, Playwright
- Pierre-Joseph Proudhon French Philosopher
- Alexandre Dumas fils French Dramatist, Novelist
- Jean le Rond d’Alembert French Mathematician
- Voltaire French Philosopher, Author
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