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All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it.
Alexis de Tocqueville
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Alexis de Tocqueville
Age: 53 †
Born: 1805
Born: July 29
Died: 1859
Died: April 16
Historian
Jurist
Philosopher
Politician
Sociologist
Writer
Paris
France
Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville
Tocqueville
Alexis-Charles-Henri Clerel de Tocqueville
Mean
Democratic
Nation
Shortest
Ought
Surest
Liberty
Liberties
Nations
Antiwar
Peace
Destroy
War
Accomplish
Means
Seek
More quotes by Alexis de Tocqueville
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.
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There are two things which a democratic people will always find very difficult - to begin a war and to end it.
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When the people rule, they must be rendered happy, or they will overturn the state.
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The man who submits to violence is debased by his compliance but when he submits to that right of authority which he acknowledges in a fellow creature, he rises in some measure above the person who give the command.
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When I refuse to obey an unjust law, I do not contest the right of the majority to command, but I simply appeal from the sovereignty of the people to the sovereignty of mankind.
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Physical strength therefore is one of the first conditions of happiness and even of the existence of nations.
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The more I view the independence of the press in its principal effects, the more I convince myself that among the moderns the independence of the press is the capital and so to speak the constitutive element of freedom.
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In politics shared hatreds are almost always the basis of friendships.
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America is a country where they have freedom of speech but everyone says the same thing.
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Town meetings are to liberty what primary schools are to science they bring it within the people's reach.
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Furthermore, when citizens are all almost equal, it becomes difficult for them to defend their independence against the aggressions of power.
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The civil jury is the most effective form of sovereignty of the people. It defies the aggressions of time and man. During the reigns of Henry VIII (1509-1547) and Elizabeth I (1158-1603), the civil jury did in reality save the liberties of England.
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The Americans combine the notions of religion and liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive of one without the other.
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Those that despise people will never get the best out of others and themselves.
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The whole life of an American is passed like a game of chance, a revolutionary crisis, or a battle.
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America is a land of wonders, in which everything is in constant motion and every change seems an improvement.
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To remain silent is the most useful service that a mediocre speaker can render to the public good.
Alexis de Tocqueville
There is no philosopher in the world so great but he believes a million things on the faith of other people and accepts a great many more truths than he demonstrates.
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The Americans make associations to give entertainment, to found seminaries, to build inns, to construct churches, to diffuse books, to send missionaries to the antipodes in this manner, they found hospitals, prisons and schools.
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Despotism may be able to do without religion, but democracy cannot.
Alexis de Tocqueville
