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Quote by Alexis de Tocqueville

“There are at the present time two great nations in the world - allude to the Russians and the Americans. All other nations seem to have nearly reached their national limits, and have only to maintain their power; these alone are proceeding along a path to which no limit can be perceived.”

Quote by Alexis de Tocqueville

Author

Alexis de Tocqueville

Alexis de Tocqueville was a French historian and political theorist renowned for his seminal work 'Democracy in America'. He embarked on a journey to the United States in the 1830s to examine its democratic institutions, and his observations were compiled into a two-volume book that remains a cornerstone in the study of American democracy and political science. more

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“The public, therefore, among a democratic people, has a singular power, which aristocratic nations cannot conceive; for it does not persuade others to its beliefs, but it imposes them and makes them permeate the thinking of everyone by a sort of enormous pressure of the mind of all upon the individual intelligence.”

People Thinking Mind Doe Individual Belief Nations Pressure Democratic Enormous Aristocratic

Book:Democracy in America

Source: Democracy in America

“In democratic countries, however opulent a man is supposed to be, he is almost always discontented with his fortune, because he finds that he is less rich than his father was, and he fears that his sons will be less rich than himself.”

Men Country Father Rich Son Fortune Democratic Supposed To Be Democratic Country

Book:Democracy in America: The Complete and Unabridged Volumes I and II

Source: Democracy in America: The Complete and Unabridged Volumes I and II

“In the United States the sovereign authority is religious, and consequently hypocrisy must be common; but there is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America; and there can be no greater proof of its utility and of its conformity to human nature than that its influence is powerfully felt over the most enlightened and free nation of the earth.”

Source: Democracy in America: Book One

“The last thing abandoned by a party is its phraseology, because among political parties, as elsewhere, the vulgar make the language, and the vulgar abandon more easily the ideas that have been instilled into it than the words that it has learnt.”

Has Beens Ideas Lasts Political Language Party Abandon Abandoned Elsewhere Vulgar Political Parties

Book:Memoir, Letters, and Remains of Alexis de Tocqueville

Source: Memoir, Letters, and Remains of Alexis de Tocqueville

“Furthermore, when citizens are all almost equal, it becomes difficult for them to defend their independence against the aggressions of power.”

Difficult Citizens Equal Independence Aggression Democracy In America

Author:Alexis de Tocqueville

“The people reign over the American political world as God rules over the universe. It is the cause and the end of all things; everything rises out of it and is absorbed back into it.”

People World Ends Political Universe Politics Causes All Things Reign

Book:Democracy in America

Source: Democracy in America

“Among these widely differing families of men, the first that attracts attention, the superior in intelligence, in power, and in enjoyment, is the white, or European, the MAN pre-eminently so called, below him appear the Negro and the Indian.”

Men Firsts White Attention He Man Superiors Indian Enjoyment

Book:Democracy in America

Source: Democracy in America

“The most formidable of all the ills that threaten the future of the Union arises from the presence of a black population upon its territory; and in contemplating the cause of the present embarrassments, or the future dangers of the United States, the observer is invariably led to this as a primary fact.”

States Facts Causes Black United United States Danger Unions Population Arise Primaries Territory Contemplating Observers Embarrassment Formidable

Book:Democracy in America

Source: Democracy in America

“What chiefly diverts the men of democracies from lofty ambition is not the scantiness of their fortunes, but the vehemence of the exertions they daily make to improve them.”

Men Democracy He Man Ambition Fortune Lofty Exertion Vehemence

Book:Democracy in America: The Complete and Unabridged Volumes I and II

Source: Democracy in America: The Complete and Unabridged Volumes I and II

“Countries, therefore, when lawmaking falls exclusively to the lot of the poor cannot hope for much economy in public expenditure; expenses will always be considerable, either because taxes cannot touch those who vote for them or because they are assessed in a way to prevent that.”

Way Country Fall Poor Economy Taxes Vote Expenses Expenditures

Book:Democracy in America

Source: Democracy in America