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Rulers who destroy men's freedom commonly begin by trying to retain its forms. ... They cherish the illusion that they can combine the prerogatives of absolute power with the moral authority that comes from popular assent.

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
Authority
Cherish
Moral
Absolutes
Prerogatives
Freedom
Absolute
Assent
Comes
Popular
Prerogative
Form
Destroy
Combine
Power
Forms
Retain
Trying
Illusion
Commonly
Men
Begin
Rulers

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Men living in democratic times have many passions, but most of their passions either end in the love of riches, or proceed from it.
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Any measure that establishes legal charity on a permanent basis and gives it an administrative form thereby creates an idle and lazy class, living at the expense of the industrial and working class.
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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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I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run.
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The Union was formed by the voluntary agreement of the States and these, in uniting together, have not forfeited their Nationality, nor have they been reduced to the condition of one and the same people. If one of the States chose to withdraw its name from the contract, it would be difficult to disprove its right of doing so.
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Christianity has therefore retained a strong hold on the public mind in America... In the United States... Christianity itself is a fact so irresistibly established, that no one undertakes either to attack or to defend it.
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[R]eligion cannot share the material strength of the rulers without being burdened with some of the animosity roused against them.
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If I were asked ... to what the singular prosperity and growing strength of Americans ought mainly to be attributed, I should reply: To the superiority of their women.
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America is a land of wonders, in which everything is in constant motion and every change seems an improvement. No natural boundary seems to be set to the efforts of man and in his eyes what is not yet done is only what he has not attempted to do. - from Democracy 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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The genius of democracies is seen not only in the great number of new words introduced but even more in the new ideas they express.
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The Indian knew how to live without wants, to suffer without complaint, and to die singing.
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Those that despise people will never get the best out of others and themselves.
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There is hardly a political question in the United States which does not sooner or later turn into a judicial one.
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As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of everything in this world only in the answer to this single question: how much money will it bring in?
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I know without needing to hear the voice of the Creator that the stars trace out in space the orbits which His hand has drawn.
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In the United States, except for slaves, servants and the destitute fed by townships, everyone has the vote and this is an indirect contributor to law-making. Anyone wishing to attack the law is thus reduced to adopting one of two obvious courses: they must either change the nation's opinion or trample its wishes under foot.
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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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All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it.
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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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