124 quotes
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.
Democracy in America, Volume I (1835)
A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.
Democracy in America, Volume I (1835)
In countries where associations are free, secret societies are unknown. In America there are factions, but no conspiracies.
Democracy in America, Volume I (1835)
History, it is easily perceived, is a picture-gallery containing a host of copies and very few originals.
The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856)
No natural boundary seems to be set to the efforts of man; and what is not yet done is only what he has not yet attempted to do.
Democracy in America, Volume I (1835)
Despots themselves don't deny that freedom is a wonderful thing, they only want to limit it to themselves; they argue that everyone else is unworthy of it.
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.
Democracy in America, Volume I (1835)
We are sleeping on a volcano... A wind of revolution blows, the storm is on the horizon.
Every central government worships uniformity: uniformity relieves it from inquiry into an infinity of details.
Democracy in America, Volume II (1840)
In other words, a democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.
Material comforts ... are small, but the soul clings to them: it considers them every day and from very close; in the end they hide the rest of the world from it.
The Indian knew how to live without wants, to suffer without complaint, and to die singing.
Democracy in America, Volume I (1835)
All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it.
Democracy in America, Volume II (1840)
He was as great as a man can be without morality.
Said of Napoleon (1842)
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.
That religion which holds that all men are equal in the sight of the great Father will not refuse to acknowledge that all citizens are equal in the sight of the law.
Two things in America are astonishing: the changeableness of most human behavior and the strange stability of certain principles. Men are constantly on the move, but the spirit of humanity seems almost unmoved.
Democracy in America, Volume II (1840)
If there ever are great revolutions there, they will be caused by the presence of the blacks upon American soil. That is to say, it will not be the equality of social conditions but rather their inequality which may give rise thereto.
Democracy in America, Volume II (1840)
Among these widely differing families of men, the first that attracts attention, the superior in intelligence, in power, and in enjoyment, is the white, or European, the MAN pre-eminently so called, below him appear the Negro and the Indian.
Democracy in America, Volume I (1835)
The pursuit of wealth generally diverts men of great talents and strong passions from the pursuit of power; and it frequently happens that a man does not undertake to direct the fortunes of the state until he has shown himself incompetent to conduct his own.
Democracy in America, Volume I (1835)