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The position of the Americans is quite exceptional, and it may be believed that no democratic people will ever be placed in a similar one.

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
Position
Quite
Exceptionalism
May
Exceptional
Ever
Placed
People
Similar
Believed
Democratic
Americans

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Those that despise people will never get the best out of others and themselves.
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Society is endangered not by the great profligacy of a few, but by the laxity of morals amongst all.
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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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The foremost or indeed sole condition required in order to succeed in centralizing the supreme power in a democratic community is to love equality or to get men to believe you love it. Thus, the science of despotism, which was once so complex, has been simplified and reduced, as it were, to a single principle.
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The more government takes the place of associations, the more will individuals lose the idea of forming associations and need the government to come to their help. That is a vicious circle of cause and effect.
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It must not be forgotten that it is especially dangerous to enslave men in the minor details of life. For my part, I should be inclined to think freedom less necessary in the great things than in the little ones, if it were possible to be secure of the one without the other.
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It is indeed difficult to imagine how men who have entirely renounced the habit of managing their own affairs could be successful in choosing those who ought to lead them. It is impossible to believe that a liberal, energetic, and wise government can ever emerge from the ballots of a nation of servants.
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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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There is hardly a political question in the United States which does not sooner or later turn into a judicial one.
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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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The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.
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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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One of the distinguishing characteristics of a democratic period is the taste that all men have for easy success and present enjoyment. This occurs in the pursuits of the intellect as well as in others.
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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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With much care and skill power has been broken into fragments in the American township, so that the maximum possible number of people have some concern with public affairs.
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In a revolution, as in a novel, the most difficult part to invent is the end.
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If ever America undergoes great revolutions, they will be brought about by the presence of the black race on the soil of the United States - that is to say, they will owe their origin not to the equality but to the inequality of conditions.
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I should have loved freedom, I believe, at all times, but in the time in which we live I am ready to worship it.
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He who seeks freedom for anything but freedom's self is made to be a slave.
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America is a country where they have freedom of speech but everyone says the same thing.
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