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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.

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
People
Command
Refuse
Contest
Majority
Contests
Mankind
Sovereignty
Simply
Obey
Justice
Appeal
Law
Unjust
Right
Appeals

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One of the happiest consequences of the absence of government...is the development of individual strength that inevitably follows.
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I have only one passion, the love of liberty and human dignity.
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As the past has ceased to throw its light upon the future, the mind of man wanders in obscurity.
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It is an axiom of political science in the United States that the sole means of neutralizing the effects of newspapers is to multiply their number.
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Every central government worships uniformity: uniformity relieves it from inquiry into an infinity of details, which must be attended to if rules have to be adapted to different men, instead of indiscriminately subjecting all men to the same rule.
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In politics a community of hatred is almost always the foundation of friendships.
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The Indian knew how to live without wants, to suffer without complaint, and to die singing.
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Nothing is so dangerous as that of violence employed by well-meaning people for beneficial objects.
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Comfort becomes a goal when distinctions of rank are abolished and privileges destroyed.
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I have always noticed in politics how often men are ruined by having too good a memory.
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A great democratic revolution is taking place in our midst.
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America is great because she is good.
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The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.
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We need a new political science for a new world.
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Those who prize freedom only for the material benefits it offers have never kept it for long.
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The progress of democracy seems irresistible, because it is the most uniform, the most ancient and the most permanent tendency which is to be found in history.
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Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.
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The electors see their representative not only as a legislator for the state but also as the natural protector of local interests in the legislature indeed, they almost seem to think that he has a power of attorney to represent each constituent, and they trust him to be as eager in their private interests as in those of the country.
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