Alexis de Tocqueville
French political philosopher and historian (1805 to 1859); author of Democracy in America.
Alexis de Tocqueville did not write this page.
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Their wordsThe gradual development of the equality of conditions is therefore a providential fact, and it possesses all the characteristics of a divine decree: it is universal, it is durable, it constantly eludes all human interference, and all events as well as all men contribute to its progress.
↗Democracy in America, Volume 1 (1835; Henry Reeve translation)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsA new science of politics is indispensable to a new world.
↗Democracy in America, Volume 1 (1835; Henry Reeve translation)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsThere is, in fact, a manly and lawful passion for equality which excites men to wish all to be powerful and honored. This passion tends to elevate the humble to the rank of the great; but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level, and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom.
↗Democracy in America, Volume 1 (1835; Henry Reeve translation)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsTown-meetings are to liberty what primary schools are to science; they bring it within the people’s reach, they teach men how to use and how to enjoy it. A nation may establish a system of free government, but without the spirit of municipal institutions it cannot have the spirit of liberty.
↗Democracy in America, Volume 1 (1835; Henry Reeve translation)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Our reading
Centralized government is needed, but centralized administration saps a nation's public spirit
Their wordsIndeed, I cannot conceive that a nation can enjoy a secure or prosperous existence without a powerful centralization of government. But I am of opinion that a central administration enervates the nations in which it exists by incessantly diminishing their public spirit.
↗Democracy in America, Volume 1 (1835; Henry Reeve translation)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsI confess that I do not entertain that firm and complete attachment to the liberty of the press which things that are supremely good in their very nature are wont to excite in the mind; and I approve of it more from a recollection of the evils it prevents than from a consideration of the advantages it ensures.
↗Democracy in America, Volume 1 (1835; Henry Reeve translation)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsAt the present time the liberty of association is become a necessary guarantee against the tyranny of the majority.
↗Democracy in America, Volume 1 (1835; Henry Reeve translation)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsIt cannot be denied that democratic institutions have a very strong tendency to promote the feeling of envy in the human heart; not so much because they afford to every one the means of rising to the level of any of his fellow-citizens, as because those means perpetually disappoint the persons who employ them. Democratic institutions awaken and foster a passion for equality which they can never entirely satisfy.
↗Democracy in America, Volume 1 (1835; Henry Reeve translation)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsI hold it to be sufficiently demonstrated that universal suffrage is by no means a guarantee of the wisdom of the popular choice, and that, whatever its advantages may be, this is not one of them.
↗Democracy in America, Volume 1 (1835; Henry Reeve translation)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsI hold it to be an impious and an execrable maxim that, politically speaking, a people has a right to do whatsoever it pleases, and yet I have asserted that all authority originates in the will of the majority. Am I then, in contradiction with myself?
↗Democracy in America, Volume 1 (1835; Henry Reeve translation)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsI know no country in which there is so little true independence of mind and freedom of discussion as in America.
↗Democracy in America, Volume 1 (1835; Henry Reeve translation)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Our reading
The legal profession is the only aristocratic element that blends peacefully with democracy
Their wordsThe profession of the law is the only aristocratic element which can be amalgamated without violence with the natural elements of democracy, and which can be advantageously and permanently combined with them.
↗Democracy in America, Volume 1 (1835; Henry Reeve translation)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsI do not know whether the jury is useful to those who are in litigation; but I am certain it is highly beneficial to those who decide the litigation; and I look upon it as one of the most efficacious means for the education of the people which society can employ.
↗Democracy in America, Volume 1 (1835; Henry Reeve translation)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Our reading
Religion is the foremost political institution in America though it takes no part in government
governmentAmericatastereligion
Their wordsReligion in America takes no direct part in the government of society, but it must nevertheless be regarded as the foremost of the political institutions of that country; for if it does not impart a taste for freedom, it facilitates the use of free institutions.
↗Democracy in America, Volume 1 (1835; Henry Reeve translation)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsDespotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot. Religion is much more necessary in the republic which they set forth in glowing colors than in the monarchy which they attack; and it is more needed in democratic republics than in any others.
↗Democracy in America, Volume 1 (1835; Henry Reeve translation)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsIn proportion as a nation assumes a democratic condition of society, and as communities display democratic propensities, it becomes more and more dangerous to connect religion with political institutions;
↗Democracy in America, Volume 1 (1835; Henry Reeve translation)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Our reading
Neither good laws nor a good situation can maintain a constitution against a country's manners
Their wordsI am convinced that the most advantageous situation and the best possible laws cannot maintain a constitution in spite of the manners of a country; whilst the latter may turn the most unfavorable positions and the worst laws to some advantage.
↗Democracy in America, Volume 1 (1835; Henry Reeve translation)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsOn the contrary, the prejudice of the race appears to be stronger in the States which have abolished slavery, than in those where it still exists; and nowhere is it so intolerant as in those States where servitude has never been known.
↗Democracy in America, Volume 1 (1835; Henry Reeve translation)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsI do not imagine that the white and black races will ever live in any country upon an equal footing. But I believe the difficulty to be still greater in the United States than elsewhere.
↗Democracy in America, Volume 1 (1835; Henry Reeve translation)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsThe Anglo-American relies upon personal interest to accomplish his ends, and gives free scope to the unguided exertions and common-sense of the citizens; the Russian centres all the authority of society in a single arm: the principal instrument of the former is freedom; of the latter servitude. Their starting-point is different, and their courses are not the same; yet each of them seems to be marked out by the will of Heaven to sway the destinies of half the globe.
↗Democracy in America, Volume 1 (1835; Henry Reeve translation)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book