Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
One of the happiest consequences of the absence of government...is the development of individual strength that inevitably follows.
Men living in democratic times have many passions, but most of their passions either end in the love of riches, or proceed from it.
So many of my thoughts and feelings are shared by the English that England has turned into a second native land of the mind for me.
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.
It is far more important to resist apathy than anarchy or despotism, for apathy can give rise, almost indifferently, to either one.
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."
Consider any individual at any period of his life, and you will always find him preoccupied with fresh plans to increase his comfort.
We succeed in enterprises which demand the positive qualities we possess, but we excel in those which can also make use of our defects.
Of all the countries of the world America is the one where the movement of thought and human industry is the most continuous and swift.
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.
By obliging men to turn their attention to other affairs than their own, it rubs off that private selfishness which is the rust of society.
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.
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.
Furthermore, when citizens are all almost equal, it becomes difficult for them to defend their independence against the aggressions of power.
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.
A long war almost always places nations in this sad alternative: that their defeat delivers them to destruction and their triumph to despotism.
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.
The aspect of American society is animated, because men and things are always changing; but it is monotonous, because all the changes are alike.
Can it be believed that the democracy, which has overthrown the feudal system and vanquished kings, will retreat before tradesmen and capitalists?
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.
[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.
Despotism often presents itself as the repairer of all the ills suffered, the support of just rights, defender of the oppressed, and founder of order.
One of the most ordinary weaknesses of the human intellect is to seek to reconcile contrary principles, and to purchase peace at the expense of logic.
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.
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.
I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run.
But what most astonishes me in the United States, is not so much the marvelous grandeur of some undertakings, as the innumerable multitude of small ones.
Religion, which never intervenes directly in the government of American society, should therefore be considered as the first of their political institutions
I cannot believe that a republic could subsist if the influence of the lawyers in public business did not increase in proportion to the power of the people.
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.
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.
The progress of democracy seems irresistible, because it is the most uniform, the most ancient and the most permanent tendency which is to be found in history.
Better use has been made of association and this powerful instrument of action has been applied for more varied aims in America than anywhere else in the world.
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.
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.
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
The taste which men have for liberty and that which they feel for equality are, in fact, two different things...among democratic nations they are two unequal things.
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.
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.
There is one universal law that has been formed, or at least adoptedby the majority of mankind. That law is justice. Justice forms the cornerstone of each nation's law.
I am unaware of his plans but I shall never stop believing in them because I cannot fathom them and I prefer to mistrust my own intellectual capacities than his justice.
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.
There is hardly a pioneer's hut which does not contain a few odd volumes of Shakespeare. I remember reading the feudal drama of Henry V for the first time in a log cabin.
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.
At the head of any new undertaking where in France you would find the government, or in England some great lord, in the United States you are sure to find an association.
With much care and skill power has been broken into fragments in the American township, so that the maximum possible number of people have some concern with public affairs.
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.
I do not find fault with equality for drawing men into the pursuit of forbidden pleasures, but for absorbing them entirely in the search for the pleasures that are permitted.
Nations are less disposed to make revolutions in proportion as personal property is augmented and distributed among them, and as the number of those possessing it is increased.
European Christianity has allowed itself to be intimately united with the powers of this world. Now that these powers are falling, it is as if it were buried under their ruins.