Alexis de Tocqueville quotes

  1. Home
  2. Alexis de Tocqueville quotes
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
Love
Country
Majority
Property
states
United
World
There is hardly a political question in the United States which does not sooner or later turn into a judicial one.
Alexis de Tocqueville
Question
states
United
When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.
Alexis de Tocqueville
Darkness
Future
Past
Spirit
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
Government
Tax
Obligation
Vote
All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it.
Alexis de Tocqueville
War
Nation
Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.
Alexis de Tocqueville
Equality
Americans
Freedom
Slavery
An American cannot converse, but he can discuss, and his talk falls into a dissertation. He speaks to you as if he was addressing a meeting; and if he should chance to become warm in the discussion, he will say "Gentlemen" to the person with whom he is conversing.
Alexis de Tocqueville
American
Chance
Meeting
Talk
Will
Life is to entered upon with courage.
Alexis de Tocqueville
Life
Courage
No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country.
Alexis de Tocqueville
War
Country
Freedom
Nothing seems at first sight less important than the outward form of human actions, yet there is nothing upon which men set more store: they grow used to everything except to living in a society which has not their own manners.
Alexis de Tocqueville
Men
Society
Actions
First
Living
Manners
Nothing
Sight
The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.
Alexis de Tocqueville
Money
American
Congress
Day
Public
Will
The Americans combine the notions of religion and liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive of one without the other.
Alexis de Tocqueville
Religion
Americans
Liberty
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.
Alexis de Tocqueville
Anxiety
English
Eyes
Satisfaction
Want
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.
Alexis de Tocqueville
Society
Time
American
Old
What is most important for democracy is not that great fortunes should not exist, but that great fortunes should not remain in the same hands. In that way there are rich men, but they do not form a class.
Alexis de Tocqueville
Men
Class
Democracy