Quotes by Alexis de Tocqueville

We succeed in enterprises which demand the positive qualities we possess, but we excel in those which can also make use of our defects.

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.

There are two things which a democratic people will always find very difficult - to begin a war and to end it.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the publics money.

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?

No state of society or laws can render men so much alike but that education, fortune, and tastes will interpose some differences between them; and though different men may sometimes find it their interest to combine for the same purposes, they will never make it their pleasure.

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.