What Alexis de Tocqueville thinks about taste
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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4 dated positions, c. 1835 to c. 1840, in their own words. Our reading of what Alexis de Tocqueville has said — not written or endorsed by them.
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Our readingWriters in democratic ages will aim to astonish and stir passions more than to please taste
Their wordsThe object of authors will be to astonish rather than to please, and to stir the passions more than to charm the taste.
↗Democracy in America, Volume 2 (1840; Henry Reeve translation)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsI think that democratic communities have a natural taste for freedom: left to themselves, they will seek it, cherish it, and view any privation of it with regret. But for equality, their passion is ardent, insatiable, incessant, invincible: they call for equality in freedom; and if they cannot obtain that, they still call for equality in slavery.
↗Democracy in America, Volume 2 (1840; 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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Our readingReligion is the foremost political institution in America though it takes no part in government
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