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Alexis de Tocqueville

Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes

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Famous Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes

“There is in fact a manly and legitimate passion for equality that incites men to want to be strong and esteemed. This passion tends to elevate the small to the rank of the great. But in the human heart a depraved taste for equality is also found that leads the weak to want to bring the strong down to their level and that reduces men to preferring equality in servitude to inequality in liberty.”

LibertyEqualityInequalityServitudeHuman Depravity
Book:Democracy in America - Volume 1: The Original 1835 Edition Text
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“The religionists are the enemies of liberty, and the friends of liberty attack religion; the high-minded and the noble advocate bondage, and the meanest and most servile preach independence; honest and enlightened citizens are opposed to all progress, whilst men without patriotism and without principle put themselves forward as the apostles of civilization and intelligence. Has such been the fate of the centuries which have preceded our own? and has man always inhabited a world like the present, where all things are out of their natural connections, where virtue is without genius, and genius without honor; where the love of order is confounded with a taste for oppression, and the holy rites of freedom with a contempt of law; where the light thrown by conscience on human actions is dim, and where nothing seems to be any longer forbidden or allowed, honorable or shameful, false or true?”

ReligionLibertySocietyPostmodernismDegeneration1835
Book:Democracy in America
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“Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.”

PoliticalPoliticsDifferencesCommonLibertyDemocracySeekingEqualitySocialismLiberalismPatrioticRestraintOne WordFreedom And LibertyFreedom LibertyServitudeDemocracies HaveEquality Of PeopleDemocratic SocialismLiberty And EqualityDemocracy In AmericaLiberal DemocracyRoad To SerfdomCapitalism And Socialism
Author:Alexis de Tocqueville
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“It is above all in the present democratic age that the true friends of liberty and human grandeur must remain constantly vigilant and ready to prevent the social power from lightly sacrificing the particular rights of a few individuals to the general execution of its designs. In such times there is no citizen so obscure that it is not very dangerous to allow him to be oppressed, and there are no individual rights so unimportant that they can be sacrificed to arbitrariness with impunity.”

HumansAgeIndividualSocialLibertyRightsSacrificeDangerousDesignParticularReadyCitizensDemocraticExecutionOppressedObscureTrue FriendGrandeurUnimportantVigilantImpunityIndividual RightsSocial Power
Author:Alexis de Tocqueville
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“What good does it do me, after all, if an ever-watchful authority keeps an eye out to ensure that my pleasures will be tranquil and races ahead of me to ward off all danger, sparing me the need even to think about such things, if that authority, even as it removes the smallest thorns from my path, is also absolute master of my liberty and my life; if it monopolizes vitality and existence to such a degree that when it languishes, everything around it must also languish; when it sleeps, everything must also sleep; and when it dies, everything must also perish?”

IfsThinkingNeedsDoeEyeDiesSleepPleasureRaceExistenceLibertyPathDangerMastersDegreesAuthorityAbsolutesRemoveSmallestVitalityThornsTranquilLanguish
Author:Alexis de Tocqueville
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“Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot. How is it possible that society should escape destruction if the moral tie is not strengthened in proportion as the political tie is relaxed? And what can be done with a people who are their own masters if they are not submissive to the Deity?”

PeopleIfsShouldMayDonePoliticalFaithLibertyMoralMastersDestructionTiesProportionRelaxedDeitiesDespotismSubmissive
Book:Democracy in America
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“The Union was formed by the voluntary agreement of the States; and these, in uniting together, have not forfeited their Nationality, nor have they been reduced to the condition of one and the same people. If one of the States chose to withdraw its name from the contract, it would be difficult to disprove its right of doing so.”

PeopleIfsStatesWould BeTogetherNamesDifficultLibertyConditionsUnionsLibertarianAgreementContractsLibertarianismNationalityUnitingSecessionStates Rights
Book:Democracy in America
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“Trade is the natural enemy of all violent passions. Trade loves moderation, delights in compromise, and is most careful to avoid anger. It is patient, supple, and insinuating, only resorting to extreme measures in cases of absolute necessity. Trade makes men independent of one another and gives them a high idea of their personal importance: it leads them to want to manage their own affairs and teaches them to succeed therein. Hence it makes them inclined to liberty but disinclined to revolution.”

MenWantLoveGivingIdeasPassionNaturalLibertyEnemyTeachCasesRevolutionSucceedImportanceAbsolutesIndependentTradePatientAffairCarefulDelightExtremesViolentManageCompromiseModerationRebelliousSuppleNatural Enemies
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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“[T]he main evil of the present democratic institutions of the united states does not raise, as is often asserted in Europe, from their weakness, but from their irresistible strength. I am not so much alarmed at the excessive liberty which reigns in that country as at the inadequate securities which one finds there against tyranny.”

DoeCountryStatesEvilUnitedLibertyUnited StatesSecurityWeaknessEuropeRaisesInstitutionsDemocraticTyrannyReignIrresistibleInadequate
Author:Alexis de Tocqueville
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“Even despots accept the excellence of liberty. The simple truth is that they wish to keep it for themselves and promote the idea that no one else is at all worthy of it. Thus, our opinion of liberty does not reveal our differences but the relative value which we place on our fellow man. We can state with conviction, therefore, that a man's support for absolute government is in direct proportion to the contempt he feels for his country.”

MenFeelsDoeIdeasCountryStatesGovernmentValuesWishDifferencesSimpleLibertyAcceptingOpinionSupportTruth IsDirectAbsolutesFellowsExcellenceConvictionWorthyProportionContemptRelativeFellow ManSimple TruthsDespotsRelative Value
Author:Alexis de Tocqueville
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