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Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot. How is it possible that society should escape destruction if the moral tie is not strengthened in proportion as the political tie is relaxed? And what can be done with a people who are their own masters if they are not submissive to the Deity?

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
Faith
Proportion
Submissive
Political
Escape
Strengthened
Cannot
Destruction
Deity
May
Masters
Deities
Without
Liberty
Despotism
Done
Possible
Govern
People
Moral
Relaxed
Society
Ties

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In democracies, nothing is more great or more brilliant than commerce: it attracts the attention of the public, and fills the imagination of the multitude all energetic passions are directed towards it.
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History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies.
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Democratic nations care but little for what has been, but they are haunted by visions of what will be.
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The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals morals can turn the worst laws to advantage.
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The will of the nation is one of those phrases most widely abused by schemers and tyrants of all ages.
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The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.
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What is not yet done is only what we have not yet attempted to do.
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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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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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I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.
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No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country.
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But what most astonishes me in the United States, is not so much the marvelous grandeur of some undertakings, as the innumerable multitude of small ones.
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The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens.
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The prejudice of the race appears stronger in the States that have abolished slaves than in the States where slavery still exists. White carpenters, white bricklayers, and white painters will not work side by side with the blacks in the North but do it in almost every Southern State.
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The only authors whom I acknowledge as American are the journalists. They, indeed, are not great writers, but they speak the language of their countrymen, and make themselves heard by them.
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Military discipline is merely a perfection of social servitude.
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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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Better use has been made of association and this powerful instrument of action has been applied for more varied aims in America than anywhere else in the world.
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This so-called tolerance, which, in my opinion, is nothing but a huge indifference.
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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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