Alexis de Tocqueville's Quotes

In America the majority raises formidable barriers around the liberty of opinion; within these barriers an author may write what he pleases, but woe to him if he goes beyond them.

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.

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.

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

The whole life of an American is passed like a game of chance, a revolutionary crisis, or a battle.

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.

Consider any individual at any period of his life, and you will always find him preoccupied with fresh plans to increase his comfort.

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

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

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.

The debates of that great assembly are frequently vague and perplexed, seeming to be dragged rather than to march, to the intended goal. Something of this sort must, I think, always happen in public democratic assemblies.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Life is to be entered upon with courage.

The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.

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.