Alexis De Tocqueville Quotes

Despotism can do without faith but freedom cannot.

I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.

Christianity is the companion of liberty in all its conflicts, the cradle of its infancy, and the divine source of its claims.

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

If there ever are great revolutions there, they will be caused by the presence of the blacks upon American soil.

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

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.

On close inspection, we shall find that religion, and not fear, has ever been the cause of the long-lived prosperity of an absolute government.

Chance does nothing that has not been prepared beforehand.

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

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

The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals; morals can turn the worst laws to advantage.

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

The French want no-one to be their superior. The English want inferiors. The Frenchman constantly raises his eyes above him with anxiety. The Englishman lowers his beneath him with satisfaction.

There are two things which a democratic people will always find very difficult - to begin a war and to end it.

There is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America.

It is an axiom of political science in the United States that the sole means of neutralizing the effects of newspapers is to multiply their number.

Comfort becomes a goal when distinctions of rank are abolished and privileges destroyed.

If men are to remain civilized or to become so, the art of associating together must grow and improve in the same ratio in which the equality of conditions is increased.

The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens.

America is great because she is good.

If I were asked ... to what the singular prosperity and growing strength of Americans ought mainly to be attributed, I should reply: To the superiority of their women.

Equality is a slogan based on envy. It signifies in the heart of every republican: "Nobody is going to occupy a place higher than I."

Slavery...dishonors labor. It introduces idleness into society, and with idleness, ignorance and pride, luxury and distress. It enervates the powers of the mind and benumbs the activity of man.

Men will not receive the truth from their enemies, and it is seldom offered to them by their friends.

When an American asks for the cooperation of his fellow citizens, it is seldom refused; and I have often seen it afforded spontaneously and with great good will.

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.

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.

Lawyers belong to the people by birth and interest, and to the aristocracy by habit and taste; they may be looked upon as the connecting link of the two great classes of society.

In countries where associations are free, secret societies are unknown. In America there are factions, but no conspiracies.

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.

The Indian knew how to live without wants, to suffer without complaint, and to die singing.

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.

The happy and powerful do not go into exile, and there are no surer guarantees of equality among men than poverty and misfortune.

The whole life of an American is passed like a game of chance, a revolutionary crisis, or a battle.

We can state with conviction, therefore, that a man's support for absolute government is in direct proportion to the contempt he feels for his country.

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.

As the past has ceased to throw its light upon the future, the mind of man wanders in obscurity.

In the principle of equality I very clearly discern two tendencies; one leading the mind of every man to untried thoughts, the other prohibiting him from thinking at all.

There is hardly a political question in the United States which does not sooner or later turn into a judicial one.

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.

The will of the nation is one of those phrases most widely abused by schemers and tyrants of all ages.

The French constitute the most brilliant and the most dangerous nation in Europe and the best qualified in turn to become an object of admiration, hatred, pity or terror but never indifference.

The last thing a political party gives up is its vocabulary.

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

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

[Liberty] considers religion as the safeguard of morality, and morality as the best security of law and the surest pledge of the duration of freedom.

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

I know of no other country where love of money has such a grip on men's hearts or where stronger scorn is expressed for the theory of permanent equality of property

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.