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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.

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
Else
Instrument
America
Aim
Better
Anywhere
Made
Instruments
World
Democracy
Varied
Powerful
Aims
Use
Applied
Action
Association

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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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No stigma attaches to the love of money in America, and provided it does not exceed the bounds imposed by public order, it is held in honor. The American will describe as noble and estimable ambition that our medieval ancestors would have called base cupidity.
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If ever America undergoes great revolutions, they will be brought about by the presence of the black race on the soil of the United States - that is to say, they will owe their origin not to the equality but to the inequality of conditions.
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To remain silent is the most useful service that a mediocre speaker can render to the public good.
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He who seeks freedom for anything but freedom's self is made to be a slave.
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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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Nations are less disposed to make revolutions in proportion as personal property is augmented and distributed among them, and as the number of those possessing it is increased.
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Can it be believed that the democracy, which has overthrown the feudal system and vanquished kings, will retreat before tradesmen and capitalists?
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When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.
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One of the most ordinary weaknesses of the human intellect is to seek to reconcile contrary principles, and to purchase peace at the expense of logic.
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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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Society is endangered not by the great profligacy of a few, but by the laxity of morals amongst all.
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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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The most dangerous moment for a bad government is when it begins to reform.
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America is a country where they have freedom of speech but everyone says the same thing.
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Grant me thirty years of equal division of inheritances and a free press, and I will provide you with a republic.
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In countries where associations are free, secret societies are unknown. In America there are factions, but no conspiracies.
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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.
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everybody feels the evil, but no one has courage or energy enough to seek the cure
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To commit violent and unjust acts, it is not enough for a government to have the will or even the power the habits, ideas and passions of the time must lend themselves to their committal.
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