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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.

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
Spirit
Neither
Remember
Sacrifice
Self
Courage
Life
Serious
Pleasure
Upon
Pain
Business
Entered

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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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What is understood by republican government in the United States is the slow and quiet action of society upon itself.
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Men seldom take the opinion of their equal, or of a man like themselves, upon trust.
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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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Useful undertakings which require sustained attention and vigorous precision in order to succeed often end up by being abandoned, for, in America, as elsewhere, the people move forward by sudden impulses and short-lived efforts.
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As the past has ceased to throw its light upon the future, the mind of man wanders in obscurity.
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But what most astonishes me in the United States, is not so much the marvelous grandeur of some undertakings, as the innumerable multitude of small ones.
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When none but the wealthy had watches, they were almost all very good ones few are now made which are worth much, but everybody has one in his pocket.
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In politics a community of hatred is almost always the foundation of friendships.
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No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country.
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In democratic centuries, on the contrary, when the duties of each individual toward the species are much clearer, devotion toward one man becomes rarer: the bond of human affections is extended and loosened.
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Nothing is so dangerous as that of violence employed by well-meaning people for beneficial objects.
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We need a new political science for a new world.
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When an American asks for the cooperation of his fellow citizens, it is seldom refused and I have often seen it afforded spontaneously and with great good will.
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Nothing is more wonderful than the art of being free, but nothing is harder to learn how to use than freedom.
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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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Society was cut in two: those who had nothing united in common envy those who had anything united in common terror.
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Among the laws controlling human societies there is one more precise and clearer, it seems to me, than all the others. If men are to remain civilized or to become civilized, the art of association must develop and improve among them at the same speed as equality of conditions spreads.
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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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I have always noticed in politics how often men are ruined by having too good a memory.
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