Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes
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If there ever are great revolutions there, they will be caused by the presence of the blacks upon American soil. That is to say, it will not be the equality of social conditions but rather their inequality which may give rise thereto.
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If it be of the highest importance to man, as an individual, that his religion should be true, the case of society is not the same. Society has no future life to hope for or to fear; and provided the citizens profess a religion, the peculiar tenets of that religion are of very little importance to its interests.
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The power of the periodical press is second only to that of the people.
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The principle of equality does not destroy the imagination, but lowers its flight to the level of the earth.
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Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been, and ever will be, pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit.
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Among these widely differing families of men, the first that attracts attention, the superior in intelligence, in power, and in enjoyment, is the white, or European, the MAN pre-eminently so called, below him appear the Negro and the Indian.
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What chiefly diverts the men of democracies from lofty ambition is not the scantiness of their fortunes, but the vehemence of the exertions they daily make to improve them.
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General ideas are no proof of the strength, but rather of the insufficiency of the human intellect.
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No natural boundary seems to be set to the efforts of man; and what is not yet done is only what he has not yet attempted to do.
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The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.
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Americans of all ages, all stations of life, and all types of disposition are forever forming associations... In democratic countries knowledge of how to combine is the mother of all other forms of knowledge; on its progress depends that of all the others.
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He was as great as a man can be without morality.
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It is almost never when a state of things is the most detestable that it is smashed, but when, beginning to improve, it permits men to breathe, to reflect, to communicate their thoughts with each other, and to gauge by what they already have the extent of their rights and their grievances. The weight, although less heavy, seems then all the more unbearable.
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Egalite is an expression of envy. It means, in the real heart of every Republican, ' No one shall be better off than I am;' and while this is preferred to good government, good government is impossible.