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General ideas are no proof of the strength, but rather of the insufficiency of the human intellect.

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
General
Strength
Rather
Ideas
Human
Humans
Insufficiency
Intellect
Proof

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I studied the Koran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as that of Muhammad.
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The debates of that great assembly are frequently vague and perplexed, seeming to be dragged rather than to march, to the intended goal. Something of this sort must, I think, always happen in public democratic assemblies.
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In America, more than anywhere else in the world, care has been taken constantly to trace clearly distinct spheres of action for the two sexes, and both are required to keep in step, but along paths that are never the same.
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I see no clear reason why the doctrine of self-interest properly understood should turn men away from religious beliefs.
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The will of the nation is one of those phrases most widely abused by schemers and tyrants of all ages.
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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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Democracy does not create strong ties between people. But it does make living together easier.
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Amongst democratic nations, each new generation is a new people.
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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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The legislator is like the navigator of a ship on the high seas. He can steer the vessel on which he sails, but he cannot alter its construction, raise the wind, or stop the waves from swelling beneath his feet.
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Whatever may be the general endeavor of a community to render its members equal and alike, the personal pride of individuals will always seek to rise above the line, and to form somewhere an inequality to their own advantage.
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We succeed in enterprises which demand the positive qualities we possess, but we excel in those which can also make use of our defects.
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On this waterlogged landscape....are scattered palaces and hovels....It is here that the human spirit becomes perfect, and at the same time brutalised, that civilisation produces its marvels and that civilised man returns to the savage.
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The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.
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An American cannot converse, but he can discuss, and his talk falls into a dissertation. He speaks to you as if he was addressing a meeting and if he should chance to become warm in the discussion, he will say 'Gentlemen' to the person with whom he is conversing.
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Religion, which never intervenes directly in the government of American society, should therefore be considered as the first of their political institutions
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The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals morals can turn the worst laws to advantage.
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America is a land of wonders, in which everything is in constant motion and every change seems an improvement.
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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 public, therefore, among a democratic people, has a singular power, which aristocratic nations cannot conceive for it does not persuade others to its beliefs, but it imposes them and makes them permeate the thinking of everyone by a sort of enormous pressure of the mind of all upon the individual intelligence.
Alexis de Tocqueville