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If there ever are great revolutions there, they will be caused by the presence of the blacks upon American soil.

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
Great
Caused
Soil
Presence
Revolution
American
Upon
Political
Revolutions
Ever
Blacks

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The Indian knew how to live without wants, to suffer without complaint, and to die singing.
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No state of society or laws can render men so much alike but that education, fortune, and tastes will interpose some differences between them and though different men may sometimes find it their interest to combine for the same purposes, they will never make it their pleasure.
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There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.
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The last thing a political party gives up is its vocabulary.
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Those who prize freedom only for the material benefits it offers have never kept it for long.
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Generally speaking, only simple conceptions can grip the mind of a nation. An idea that is clear and precise even though false will always have greater power in the world than an idea that is true but complex.
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Trade is the natural enemy of all violent passions. Trade loves moderation, delights in compromise, and is most careful to avoid anger. It is patient, supple, and insinuating, only resorting to extreme measures in cases of absolute necessity.
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The Americans combine the notions of religion and liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive of one without the other.
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The most perilous moment for a bad government is when it seeks to mend its ways. Only consummate statecraft can enable a king to save his throne when, after a long spell of oppression, he sets out to improve the lot of his subjects.
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Military discipline is merely a perfection of social servitude.
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Despotism may be able to do without religion, but democracy cannot.
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The world belongs to those with the most energy.
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No men are less addicted to reverie than the citizens of a democracy.
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The happy and powerful do not go into exile, and there are no surer guarantees of equality among men than poverty and misfortune.
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The man who asks of freedom anything other than itself is born to be a slave.
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