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" 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

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" When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness. "

Alexis de Tocqueville

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

Alexis de Tocqueville

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

Alexis de Tocqueville

" There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle. "

Alexis de Tocqueville

" The power of the periodical press is second only to that of the people. "

Alexis de Tocqueville

" 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

" 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. "

Alexis de Tocqueville

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

Alexis de Tocqueville

" Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom. "

Alexis de Tocqueville

" 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

" 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

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

Alexis de Tocqueville

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

Alexis de Tocqueville

" Grant me thirty years of equal division of inheritances and a free press, and I will provide you with a republic. "

Alexis de Tocqueville

" 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. "

Alexis de Tocqueville

" 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. "

Alexis de Tocqueville

" 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. "

Alexis de Tocqueville

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

Alexis de Tocqueville

" In other words, 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

" 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

" I cannot help fearing that men may reach a point where they look on every new theory as a danger, every innovation as a toilsome trouble, every social advance as a first step toward revolution, and that they may absolutely refuse to move at all. "

Alexis de Tocqueville

" 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

" The main business of religions is to purify, control, and restrain that excessive and exclusive taste for well-being which men acquire in times of equality. "

Alexis de Tocqueville

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

Alexis de Tocqueville

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

Alexis de Tocqueville

" As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of everything in this world only in the answer to this single question: how much money will it bring in? "

Alexis de Tocqueville

" 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

" 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. "

Alexis de Tocqueville

" 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

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

Alexis de Tocqueville