Quote

Nothing is quite so wretchedly corrupt as an aristocracy which has lost its power but kept its wealth and which still has endless leisure to devote to nothing but banal enjoyments. All its great thoughts and passionate energy are things of the past, and nothing but a host of petty, gnawing vices now cling to it like worms to a corpse.

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
Like
Lost
Vices
Corpses
Past
Endless
Cling
Wretchedly
Stills
Kept
Worms
Gnawing
Power
Passionate
Corrupt
Enjoyments
Still
Thoughts
Petty
Banal
Nothing
Wealth
Leisure
Corpse
Great
Quite
Host
Devote
Things
Energy
Enjoyment
Aristocracy

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Every central government worships uniformity: uniformity relieves it from inquiry into an infinity of details.
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I have only one passion, the love of liberty and human dignity.
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In countries where associations are free, secret societies are unknown. In America there are factions, but no conspiracies.
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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 am unaware of his plans but I shall never stop believing in them because I cannot fathom them and I prefer to mistrust my own intellectual capacities than his justice.
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In politics shared hatreds are almost always the basis of friendships.
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The electors see their representative not only as a legislator for the state but also as the natural protector of local interests in the legislature indeed, they almost seem to think that he has a power of attorney to represent each constituent, and they trust him to be as eager in their private interests as in those of the country.
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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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Men seldom take the opinion of their equal, or of a man like themselves, upon trust.
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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.
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America is a country where they have freedom of speech but everyone says the same thing.
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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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I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.
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When the people rule, they must be rendered happy, or they will overturn the state.
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Physical strength therefore is one of the first conditions of happiness and even of the existence of nations.
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The world belongs to those with the most energy.
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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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The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through.
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Every central government worships uniformity: uniformity relieves it from inquiry into an infinity of details, which must be attended to if rules have to be adapted to different men, instead of indiscriminately subjecting all men to the same rule.
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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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