Quote

The character of Anglo-American civilization . . . is the product . . . of two perfectly distinct elements that elsewhere have often made war with each other, but which, in America, they have succeeded in incorporating somehow into one another and combining marvelously. I mean to speak of the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom.

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
America
Freedom
Perfectly
Character
Religion
Product
Marvelously
Mean
War
Somehow
Incorporating
Made
Often
Morality
Anglo
Speak
Elements
Combining
Spirit
Products
Succeeded
Another
Civilization
Distinct
Two
American
Elsewhere

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We need a new political science for a new world.
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General ideas are no proof of the strength, but rather of the insufficiency of the human intellect.
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In democratic countries, however opulent a man is supposed to be, he is almost always discontented with his fortune, because he finds that he is less rich than his father was, and he fears that his sons will be less rich than himself.
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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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There is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America.
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What is understood by republican government in the United States is the slow and quiet action of society upon itself.
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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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In no other country in the world is the love of property keener or more alert than in the United States, and nowhere else does the majority display less inclination toward doctrines which in any way threaten the way property is owned.
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A newspaper is an adviser who does not require to be sought, but who comes of his own accord, and talks to you briefly every day of the common wealth, without distracting you from your private affairs.
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It is far more important to resist apathy than anarchy or despotism, for apathy can give rise, almost indifferently, to either one.
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The more government takes the place of associations, the more will individuals lose the idea of forming associations and need the government to come to their help. That is a vicious circle of cause and effect.
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It is easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth.
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Nothing seems at first sight less important than the outward form of human actions, yet there is nothing upon which men set more store: they grow used to everything except to living in a society which has not their own manners.
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The regime which is destroyed by a revolution is almost always an improvement on its immediate predecessor, and experience teaches that the most critical moment for bad governments is the one which witnesses their first steps toward reform.
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Of all the countries of the world America is the one where the movement of thought and human industry is the most continuous and swift.
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The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through.
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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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So many of my thoughts and feelings are shared by the English that England has turned into a second native land of the mind for me.
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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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Laws are always unstable unless they are founded on the manners of a nation and manners are the only durable and resisting power in a people.
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