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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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
54% of people like this quote
In politics shared hatreds are almost always the basis of friendships.
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
53% of people like this quote
The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens.
Alexis de Tocqueville
53% of people like this quote
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.
Alexis de Tocqueville
52% of people like this quote
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
A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.
Alexis de Tocqueville
52% of people like this quote
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
52% of people like this quote
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
52% of people like this quote
History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies.
Alexis de Tocqueville in
History
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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
50% of people like this quote
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