All Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes
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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We succeed in enterprises which demand the positive qualities we possess, but we excel in those which can also make use of our defects.
Alexis de Tocqueville in
Business
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The Indian knew how to live without wants, to suffer without complaint, and to die singing.
Alexis de Tocqueville
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There is hardly a political question in the United States which does not sooner or later turn into a judicial one.
Alexis de Tocqueville
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Consider any individual at any period of his life, and you will always find him preoccupied with fresh plans to increase his comfort.
Alexis de Tocqueville
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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
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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
53% of people like this quote
There are two things which a democratic people will always find very difficult - to begin a war and to end it.
Alexis de Tocqueville
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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.
Alexis de Tocqueville
52% of people like this quote
In politics shared hatreds are almost always the basis of friendships.
Alexis de Tocqueville
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History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies.
Alexis de Tocqueville in
History
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The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens.
Alexis de Tocqueville
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Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.
Alexis de Tocqueville
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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
50% of people like this quote
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