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In towns it is impossible to prevent men from assembling, getting excited together and forming sudden passionate resolves. Towns are like great meeting houses with all the inhabitants as members. In them the people wield immense influence over their magistrates and often carry their desires into execution without intermediaries.

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
Excited
Prevent
Wield
Together
Members
Resolve
Magistrates
Without
Influence
Meeting
Inhabitants
Great
Impossible
Desires
Forming
Men
Getting
Meetings
Execution
Like
Desire
Towns
Houses
Intermediaries
People
Often
Passionate
Immense
Resolves
House
Carry
Sudden
Assembling

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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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A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.
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The whole life of an American is passed like a game of chance, a revolutionary crisis, or a battle.
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Countries, therefore, when lawmaking falls exclusively to the lot of the poor cannot hope for much economy in public expenditure expenses will always be considerable, either because taxes cannot touch those who vote for them or because they are assessed in a way to prevent that.
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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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One has freedom as the principal means of action the other has servitude. Their . . . paths [are] diverse nevertheless, each seems called by some secret design of Providence one day to hold in its hands the destinies of half the world.
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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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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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If there ever are great revolutions there, they will be caused by the presence of the blacks upon American soil.
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No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country.
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With much care and skill power has been broken into fragments in the American township, so that the maximum possible number of people have some concern with public affairs.
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Nothing is so dangerous as that of violence employed by well-meaning people for beneficial objects.
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Remember that life is neither pain nor pleasure it is serious business, to be entered upon with courage and in a spirit of self-sacrifice.
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By obliging men to turn their attention to other affairs than their own, it rubs off that private selfishness which is the rust of society.
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I know of no other country where love of money has such a grip on men's hearts or where stronger scorn is expressed for the theory of permanent equality of property
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Despotism often presents itself as the repairer of all the ills suffered, the support of just rights, defender of the oppressed, and founder of order.
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He who seeks freedom for anything but freedom's self is made to be a slave.
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Not only does democracy make every man forget his ancestors, but also clouds their view of their descendants and isolates them from their contemporaries. Each man is for ever thrown back on himself alone, and there is danger that he may be shut up in the solitude of his own heart.
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Amongst democratic nations, each new generation is a new people.
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The position of the Americans is quite exceptional, and it may be believed that no democratic people will ever be placed in a similar one.
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