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Alexis de Tocqueville

Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes

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Famous Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes

“In towns it is impossible to prevent men from assembling, getting excited together and forming sudden passionate resolves. Towns are like great meeting houses with all the inhabitants as members. In them the people wield immense influence over their magistrates and often carry their desires into execution without intermediaries.”

PeopleMenTogetherAmericaDesireHouseImpossibleInfluenceMembersTownsMeetingsPassionateExcitedResolveExecutionImmenseMagistratesAssembling
Book:Democracy in America
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“It is odd to watch with what feverish ardour Americans pursue prosperity, ever tormented by the shadowy suspicion that they might not have chosen the shortest route to get it. They cleave to the things of this world as if assured they will never die, and yet rush to snatch any that comes within their reach, as if they expected to stop living before relishing them. Death steps in, in the end, and stops them, before they have grown tired of this futile pursuit of that complete felicity which always escapes them.”

IfsWorldEndsMightDiesStepsWatchesThis WorldTiredProsperityExpectedPursuitChosenPursueOddSuspicionRoutesAssuredFelicity
Author:Alexis de Tocqueville
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“There 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.”

MenHumansHeartFactsPassionWishLevelsPowerfulTasteWeakSlaveryEqualityHumbleInequalityHuman HeartHonoredManlyDepraved
Book:Democracy in America
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“It is almost never when a state of things is the most detestable that it is smashed, but when, beginning to improve, it permits men to breathe, to reflect, to communicate their thoughts with each other, and to gauge by what they already have the extent of their rights and their grievances. The weight, although less heavy, seems then all the more unbearable.”

MenStatesSeemsRightsRevolutionWeightCommunicateHeavyBreathePermitUnbearableGrievanceGauges
Book:Selected Letters on Politics and Society
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“Muhammad brought down from heaven and put into the Koran not religious doctrines only, but political maxims, criminal and civil laws, and scientific theories. The Gospels on the other hand, deal only with the general relations between man and God and between man and man. Beyond that, they teach nothing and do not oblige people to believe anything. That alone, among a thousand reasons, is enough to show that Islam will not be able to hold its power long in ages of enlightenment and democracy, while Christianity is destined to reign in such ages, as in all others.”

PeopleMenBelieveLongReasonEnoughShowsHandsAgeAbleLawPoliticalHeavenReligiousDealsChristianityTeachDemocracyTheoryThousandEnlightenmentRelationIslamCriminalsDoctrineReignDestinedMaximsMuhammadScientific TheoryAge Of Enlightenment
Author:Alexis de Tocqueville
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“Local assemblies of the people constitute the strength of free nations. Municipal institutions are to liberty what primary schools are to science: they bring it within the people's reach, and teach them how to use and 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.”

PeopleMayUseGovernmentSchoolSpiritNationsEnjoyLibertyTeachInstitutionsLocalsPrimariesAssemblyFree GovernmentPrimary School
Book:The Republic of the United States of America: And Its Political Institutions, Reviewed and Examined
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“Because Roman civilization perished through barbarian invasions, we are perhaps too much inclined to think that that is the only way a civilization can die. If the lights that guide us ever go out, they will fade little by little, as if of their own accord.... We therefore should not console ourselves by thinking that the barbarians are still a long way off. Some peoples may let the torch be snatched from their hands, but others stamp it out themselves.”

IfsThinkingWayShouldMayLittlesLongStillsHandsLightDiesLibertyToo MuchCivilizationGuidesFadesStampsLong WayInvasionAccordTorchesBarbariansConsoleRoman Civilization
Book:Democracy in America
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“Amongst democratic nations men easily attain a certain equality of conditions: they can never attain the equality they desire. It perpetually retires from before them, yet without hiding itself from their sight, and in retiring draws them on. At every moment they think they are about to grasp it; it escapes at every moment from their hold. They are near enough to see its charms, but too far off to enjoy them; and before they have fully tasted its delights they die.”

ThinkingMenEnoughMomentsDesireCertainDiesNationsEnjoyConditionsDrawsSightDemocraticDelightCharmHidingRetiring
Book:Democracy in America
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“The Americans never use the word peasant, because they have no idea of the class which that term denotes; the ignorance of more remote ages, the simplicity of rural life, and the rusticity of the villager have not been preserved among them; and they are alike unacquainted with the virtues, the vices, the coarse habits, and the simple graces of an early stage of civilization.”

IdeasUseAgeTermSimpleClassVirtueGraceStageIgnoranceHabitCivilizationSimplicityVicesNo IdeaPeasantsCoarseRural Life
Book:Democracy in America - Vol. I. and II.
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“The regime which is destroyed by a revolution is almost always an improvement on its immediate predecessor, and experience teaches that the most critical moment for bad governments is the one which witnesses their first steps toward reform.”

FirstsMomentsGovernmentStepsTeachRevolutionCriticalImprovementDestroyedWitnessReformRegimesFirst StepsPredecessorsBad GovernmentCritical Moments
Book:The Old Regime and the French Revolution
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