Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–59,) fully Alexis Charles Henri Maurice Clérel de Tocqueville, was a French diplomat, sociologist, political philosopher, and historian. He profoundly shaped debates about liberalism and equality in the nineteenth century, mainly through his study of American democracy. Tocqueville was rediscovered in the twentieth century as a prophetic critic of state power, and he remains one of the leading influences on democratic theory.
Born in an aristocratic family in Paris, he was called to the Bar in 1825 and became an assistant-magistrate at Versailles. In 1831, he was sent by the French government to the USA to report on the penal system, and on his return published a sweeping study of U.S. political and social institutions, De la démocratie en Amerique (1835–40, 4 vols.; Democracy in America.) The book immediately found a broad readership and became one of the most influential political writings of the 19th century. It remains one of the excellent European commentaries on U.S. politics and society.
Tocqueville became a member of the Chamber of Deputies (1839,) and, in 1849, was vice-president of the Assembly, and briefly Minister of Foreign Affairs.
After Napoleon III’s coup d’état, Tocqueville retired to his estate, where he wrote the first volume of L’Ancien Régime et la Révolution (1856; The Old Regime and the Revolution,) but he died before another volume could be completed.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Alexis de Tocqueville
It is a great blessing, says Pascal: “to be born a man of quality, since it brings a man as far forward at eighteen or twenty as another would be at fifty, which is a clear gain of thirty years.”—These thirty years are commonly wanting to the ambitious characters of democracies.—The principle of equality, which allows every man to arrive at everything, prevents all men from rapid advancement.
—Alexis de Tocqueville
Topics: Democracy
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
The social order destroyed by a revolution is almost always better than that which immediately preceded it, and experience shows that the most dangerous moment for a bad government is generally that in which it sets about reform.
—Alexis de Tocqueville
Topics: Reform, Correction, Government
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.
—Alexis de Tocqueville
Topics: Language
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: Excellence, Success, Abilities, Work, Self-Knowledge, Talents
The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals; morals can turn the worst laws to advantage. That is a commonplace truth, but one to which my studies are always bringing me back. It is the central point in my conception. I see it at the end of all my reflections.
—Alexis de Tocqueville
Topics: Lawyers
Laws are always unstable unless they are founded on the manners of a nation; and manners are the only durable and resisting power in a people.
—Alexis de Tocqueville
Topics: Manners
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 many more truths than he demonstrates.
—Alexis de Tocqueville
Topics: Truth
The principle of equality does not destroy the imagination, but lowers its flight to the level of the earth.
—Alexis de Tocqueville
Topics: Equality
History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies.
—Alexis de Tocqueville
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 impossible to destroy men with more respect for the laws of humanity.
—Alexis de Tocqueville
It is from the midst of this putrid sewer that the greatest river of human industry springs up and carries fertility to the whole world. From this foul drain pure gold flows forth. .
—Alexis de Tocqueville
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 Politician
Alexandre Dumas fils French Dramatist, Novelist
Jean le Rond d’Alembert French Mathematician
Simone Weil French Philosopher, Political Activist