Alexis De Tocqueville (1805-1859)

Quotes

• The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colors breaking through.

• The people reign over the American political world as God rules over the universe. It is the cause and the end of all things; everything rises out of it and is absorbed back into it.

• There is hardly a political question in the United States which doesn't sooner or later turn into a judicial one.

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

• There are now two great nations in the world, which starting from different points, seem to be advancing toward the same goal: the Russians and the Anglo-Americans...Each seems called by some secret design of Providence one day to hold in its hands the destinies of half the world.

• The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.

• Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.

• Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.

• America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.

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

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

• In politics shared hatreds are almost always the basis of friendships.

• In the United States the majority undertakes to supply a multitude of ready-made opinions for the use of individuals, who are thus relieved from the necessity of forming opinions of their own.

• A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.

• The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through.

• He was as great as a man can be without morality.

• We succeed in enterprises which demand the positive qualities we possess, but we excel in those which can also make use of our defects.

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

• History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies.

• When American(s) ask for the cooperation of (their) fellow citizens, it is seldom refused; and I have often seen it afforded spontaneously and with great good will.