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There is no country in the world in which everything can be provided for by the laws, or in which political institutions can prove a substitute for common sense and public morality.

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
Common
Substitutes
Sense
Provided
Political
Morality
Everything
Institutions
Country
Laws
World
Prove
Public
Law
Substitute

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When the reality of power has been surrendered, it's playing a dangerous game to seek to retain the appearance of it the external aspect of vigor can sometimes support a debilitated body, but most often it manages to deal it the final blow.
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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.
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When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.
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The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals morals can turn the worst laws to advantage. That is a commonplace truth, but one to which my studies are always bringing me back. It is the central point in my conception. I see it at the end of all my reflections.
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Of all nations, those submit to civilization with the most difficulty which habitually live by the chase.
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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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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.
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Those that despise people will never get the best out of others and themselves.
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In a revolution, as in a novel, the most difficult part to invent is the end.
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I have always noticed in politics how often men are ruined by having too good a memory.
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He who seeks freedom for anything but freedom's self is made to be a slave.
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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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History, it is easily perceived, is a picture-gallery containing a host of copies and very few originals.
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There are two things which a democratic people will always find very difficult - to begin a war and to end it.
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The nations of our time cannot prevent the conditions of men from becoming equal, but it depends upon themselves whether the principle of equality is to lead them to servitude or freedom, to knowledge or barbarism, to prosperity or wretchedness.
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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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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 principle of equality does not destroy the imagination, but lowers its flight to the level of the earth.
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The most dangerous moment for a bad government is when it begins to reform.
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