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There is hardly a pioneer's hut which does not contain a few odd volumes of Shakespeare. I remember reading the feudal drama of Henry V for the first time in a log cabin.

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
Drama
Pioneer
Education
Pioneers
Reading
Henry
Remember
Contain
Feudal
Doe
Volume
Cabin
Firsts
Shakespeare
Cabins
First
Odd
Huts
Time
Hardly
Volumes

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When the people rule, they must be rendered happy, or they will overturn the state.
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It must not be forgotten that it is especially dangerous to enslave men in the minor details of life.
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I am far from denying that newspapers in democratic countries lead citizens to do very ill-considered things in common but without newspapers there would be hardly any common action at all. So they mend many more ills than they cause.
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We succeed in enterprises which demand the positive qualities we possess, but we excel in those which can also make use of our defects.
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As I see it, only God can be all-powerful without danger, because his wisdom and justice are always equal to his power. Thus there is no authority on earth so inherently worthy of respect, or invested with a right so sacred, that I would want to let it act without oversight or rule without impediment (p. 290).
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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 world belongs to those with the most energy.
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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.
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When, after having examined in detail the organization of the Supreme Court, one comes to consider in sum the prerogatives that have been given it, one discovers without difficulty that a more immense judicial power has never been constituted in any people.
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Men will not receive the truth from their enemies, and it is seldom offered to them by their friends.
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The last thing abandoned by a party is its phraseology.
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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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Religion, which never intervenes directly in the government of American society, should therefore be considered as the first of their political institutions
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Nothing is more wonderful than the art of being free, but nothing is harder to learn how to use than freedom.
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General ideas are no proof of the strength, but rather of the insufficiency of the human intellect.
Alexis de Tocqueville
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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.
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Chance does nothing that has not been prepared beforehand.
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All revolutions more or less threaten the tenure of property: but most of those who live in democratic countries are possessed of property - not only are they possessed of property but they live in the condition of men who set the greatest store upon their property.
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A state of equality is perhaps less elevated, but it is more just and its justice constitutes its greatness and beauty.
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No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country.
Alexis de Tocqueville