Quotessence
Home / Authors / Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville

Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes

Historian

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenStatesAmericaDemocraticIfsDemocracyNationsPeopleLibertyPoliticalWorldCountryGovernmentPoliticsUnitedUnited StatesDoeHumansMayLaw

Famous Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes

“It would seem as if the rulers of our time sought only to use men in order to make things great; I wish that they would try a little more to make great men; that they would set less value on the work and more upon the workman; that they would never forget that a nation cannot long remain strong when every man belonging to it is individually weak; and that no form or combination of social polity has yet been devised to make an energetic people out of a community of pusillanimous and enfeebled citizens.”

PeopleIfsMenTryingLittlesLongUseSeemsFormValuesOrderStrongNationsWishSocialCommunityForgetCitizensWeakEvery ManCombinationOur TimeGreat MenBelongingNever ForgetRulersEnergeticWorkmen
Book:Democracy in America -
Create image

“Born often under another sky, placed in the middle of an always moving scene, himself driven by the irresistible torrent which draws all about him, the American has no time to tie himself to anything, he grows accustomed only to change, and ends by regarding it as the natural state of man. He feels the need of it, more he loves it; for the instability; instead of meaning disaster to him, seems to give birth only to miracles all about him.”

MenLoveNeedsGivingFeelsEndsStatesSeemsMovingOpportunityGrowsChangeBornNaturalSkyMiddleBirthSceneDrawsMiracleDrivenDisasterTiesAccustomedIrresistibleInstabilityAlways Moving
Author:Alexis de Tocqueville
Create image

“I studied the Quran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction that by and large there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as that of Muhammad. As far as I can see, it is the principal cause of the decadence so visible today in the Muslim world and, though less absurd than the polytheism of old, its social and political tendencies are in my opinion more to be feared, and I therefore regard it as a form of decadence rather than a form of progress in relation to paganism itself.”

MenWorldHas BeensI CanTodayFormPoliticalSocialCausesDealsOpinionStudyProgressRelationRegardIslamConvictionAbsurdTendenciesVisiblePrincipalPaganismMuhammadQuranDecadenceMuslim WorldPolytheism
Author:Alexis de Tocqueville
Create image

“Muhammad professed to derive from Heaven, and he has inserted in the Koran, not only a body of religious doctrines, but political maxims, civil and criminal laws, and theories of science. The gospel, on the contrary, only speaks of the general relations of men to God and to each other - beyond which it inculcates and imposes no point of faith. This alone, besides a thousand other reasons, would suffice to prove that the former of these religions will never long predominate in a cultivated and democratic age, whilst the latter is destined to retain its sway at these as at all other periods.”

MenLongReasonBodyAgeLawPoliticalSpeakHeavenReligiousTheoryPeriodsThousandProveRelationDemocraticIslamCriminalsContraryDoctrineFormerLatterDestinedMaximsNo PointMuhammadCriminal Law
Author:Alexis de Tocqueville
Create image

“I shall not fear to say that the doctrine of self-interest rightly understood seems to me of all the philosophic theories the most appropriate to the needs of men in our time, and that I see in it the most powerful guarantee against themselves that remains to them. The minds of the moralists of our day ought to turn, therefore, principally toward it. Even should they judge it imperfect, they would still have to adopt it as necessary.”

MenNeedsShouldMindStillsSelfSeemsTurnsInterestPowerfulHuman NatureJudgingTheoryOughtUnderstoodRemainsDoctrineOur TimeGuaranteesAppropriateMost PowerfulImperfectSelf InterestPhilosophicMoralist
Author:Alexis de Tocqueville
Create image

“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
Create image

“In democratic ages men rarely sacrifice themselves for another, but they show a general compassion for all the human race. One never sees them inflict pointless suffering, and they are glad to relieve the sorrows of others when they can do so without much trouble to themselves. They are not disinterested, but they are gentle.”

MenHumansShowsAgeSufferingCan DoRaceCompassionTroubleSacrificeSorrowDemocraticGladGentleHuman RacePointlessDisinterestedCompassion For OthersHuman Compassion
Book:Democracy in America
Create image

“Though it is very important for man as an individual that his religion should be true, that is not the case for society. Society has nothing to fear or hope from another life; what is most important for it is not that all citizens profess the true religion but that they should profess religion.”

MenShouldImportantReligionIndividualCasesCitizensBeing TrueMulticulturalismTrue ReligionAnother LifeMulticultural Society
Book:Democracy in America
Create image

“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
Create image

“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
Create image

“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
Create image

“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
Create image

“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
Create image

“The foremost or indeed sole condition required in order to succeed in centralizing the supreme power in a democratic community is to love equality or to get men to believe you love it. Thus, the science of despotism, which was once so complex, has been simplified and reduced, as it were, to a single principle.”

MenBelieveHas BeensOrderCommunityPrinciplesConditionsSucceedDemocraticComplexesSupremeSoleDespotismEgalitarianismSupreme PowerOrder To Succeed
Book:Democracy in America
Create image

“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
Create image

“The first who attracts the eye, the first in enlightenment, in power and in happiness, is the white man, the European, man par excellence; below him appear the Negro and the Indian. These two unfortunate races have neither birth, nor face, nor language, nor mores in common; only their misfortunes look alike. Both occupy an equally inferior position in the country that they inhabit; both experience the effects of tyranny; and if their miseries are different, they can accuse the same author for them.”

IfsMenFirstsLooksTwoDifferentCountryEyeFacesLanguageWhiteCommonRaceEffectsPositionBirthRacismEnlightenmentMiseryExcellenceTyrannyIndianMisfortunesUnfortunateInferiorsWhite Man
Book:Democracy in America
Create image