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Democracy in America Volume 1 QUOTES

Democracy in America Volume 1 QUOTES

1 " What is called family pride is often founded on the illusion of self-love. A man wishes to perpetuate and immortalize himself. "

― Alexis de Tocqueville , Democracy in America Volume 1

2 " nothing, on the other hand, can be more impenetrable to the uninitiated than a legislation founded upon precedents. "

― Alexis de Tocqueville , Democracy in America Volume 1

3 " In my opinion the main evil of the present democratic institutions of the United States does not arise, as is often asserted in Europe, from their weakness, but from their overpowering strength; and I am not so much alarmed at the excessive liberty which reigns in that country as at the very inadequate securities which exist against tyranny. "

― Alexis de Tocqueville , Democracy in America Volume 1

4 " When a legislator succeeds, after persevering efforts, in exercising an indirect influence upon the destiny of nations, his genius is lauded by mankind, whilst, in point of fact, the geographical position of the country which he is unable to change, a social condition which arose without his co-operation, manners and opinions which he cannot trace to their source, and an origin with which he is unacquainted, exercise so irresistible an influence over the courses of society that he is himself borne away by the current, after an ineffectual resistance. Like the navigator, he may direct the vessel which bears him along, but he can neither change its structure, nor raise the winds, nor lull the waters which swell beneath him. "

― Alexis de Tocqueville , Democracy in America Volume 1

5 " In America, the majority raises formidable barriers around the liberty of opinion; within these barriers, an author may write what he pleases, but woe to him if he goes beyond them. Not that he is in danger of an auto-da-fe, but he is exposed to continued obloquy and persecution. His political career is closed forever since he has offended the only authority that is able to open it. Every sort of compensation, even that of celebrity, is refused to him. Before making public his opinions he thought he had sympathizers; now it seems to him that he has none any more since he revealed himself to everyone; then those who blame him criticize him loudly and those who think as he does keep quiet and move away without courage. He yields at length, over-come by the daily effort which he has to make, and subsides into silence, as if he felt remorse for speaking the truth. "

― Alexis de Tocqueville , Democracy in America Volume 1

6 " men who so uneasily tolerate superiors patiently suffer a master, and show themselves proud and servile at the same time. "

― Alexis de Tocqueville , Democracy in America Volume 1

7 " patriotism and religion are the only two motives in the world which can permanently direct the whole of a body politic to one end. "

― Alexis de Tocqueville , Democracy in America Volume 1

8 " In reality it is far less prejudicial to witness the immorality of the great than to witness that immorality which leads to greatness. "

― Alexis de Tocqueville , Democracy in America Volume 1

9 " This demonstrated to me that those who regard universal suffrage as a guarantee for good choices are under a complete illusion. Universal suffrage has other advantages, but not that one. "

― Alexis de Tocqueville , Democracy in America Volume 1

10 " The lawyers of the United States form a party which is but little feared and scarcely perceived, which has no badge peculiar to itself, which adapts itself with great flexibility to the exigencies of the time, and accommodates itself to all the movements of the social body; but this party extends over the whole community, and it penetrates into all classes of society; it acts upon the country imperceptibly, but it finally fashions it to suit its purposes. "

― Alexis de Tocqueville , Democracy in America Volume 1

11 " The pursuit of wealth generally diverts men of great talents and of great passions from the pursuit of power, and it very frequently happens that a man does not undertake to direct the fortune of the State until he has discovered his incompetence to conduct his own affairs. "

― Alexis de Tocqueville , Democracy in America Volume 1

12 " Men are much more forcibly struck by those inequalities which exist within the circle of the same class, than with those which may be remarked between different classes. It is more easy for them to admit slavery, than to allow several millions of citizens to exist under a load of eternal infamy and hereditary wretchedness. "

― Alexis de Tocqueville , Democracy in America Volume 1

13 " I am unacquainted with a more deplorable spectacle than that of a people unable either to defend or to maintain its independence. "

― Alexis de Tocqueville , Democracy in America Volume 1

14 " Has such been the fate of the centuries which have preceded our own? and has man always inhabited a world like the present, where nothing is linked together, 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? "

― Alexis de Tocqueville , Democracy in America Volume 1

15 " If I were asked where I place the American aristocracy, I should reply without hesitation that it is not composed of the rich, who are united together by no common tie, but that it occupies the judicial bench and the bar. "

― Alexis de Tocqueville , Democracy in America Volume 1

16 " But a democracy can only obtain truth as the result of experience, and many nations may forfeit their existence whilst they are awaiting the consequences of their errors. "

― Alexis de Tocqueville , Democracy in America Volume 1

17 " The great privilege of the Americans does not simply consist in their being more enlightened than other nations, but in their being able to repair the faults they may commit. "

― Alexis de Tocqueville , Democracy in America Volume 1

18 " In other words, the government of the democracy is the only one under which the power which lays on taxes escapes the payment of them. "

― Alexis de Tocqueville , Democracy in America Volume 1

19 " This point deserves attention, for if a democratic republic similar to that of the United States were ever founded in a country where the power of a single individual had previously subsisted, and the effects of a centralized administration had sunk deep into the habits and the laws of the people, I do not hesitate to assert, that in that country a more insufferable despotism would prevail than any which now exists in the monarchical States of Europe, or indeed than any which could be found on this side of the confines of Asia. "

― Alexis de Tocqueville , Democracy in America Volume 1

20 " Under its sway the transactions of the public administration are not nearly so important as what is done by private exertion. Democracy does not confer the most skilful kind of government upon the people, but it produces that which the most skilful governments are frequently unable to awaken, namely, an all-pervading and restless activity, a superabundant force, and an energy which is inseparable from it, and which may, under favorable circumstances, beget the most amazing benefits. These are the true advantages of democracy. "

― Alexis de Tocqueville , Democracy in America Volume 1