39 quotes
What chiefly diverts the men of democracies from lofty ambition is not the scantiness of their fortunes, but the vehemence of the exertions they daily make to improve them.
Democracy in America, Volume II (1840)
It is the dissimilarities and inequalities among men which give rise to the notion of honor; as such differences become less, it grows feeble; and when they disappear, it will vanish too.
Democracy in America, Volume II (1840)
In democratic ages men rarely sacrifice themselves for another, but they show a general compassion for all the human race.
Democracy in America, Volume II (1840)
As the past has ceased to throw its light upon the future, the mind of man wanders in obscurity.
Democracy in America, Volume II (1840)
There are two things which a democratic people will always find very difficult—to begin a war and to end it.
Democracy in America, Volume II (1840)
Consider any individual at any period of his life, and you will always find him preoccupied with fresh plans to increase his comfort.
Democracy in America, Volume II (1840)
General ideas are no proof of the strength, but rather of the insufficiency of the human intellect.
Democracy in America, Volume II (1840)
No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country.
Democracy in America, Volume II (1840)
The main business of religions is to purify, control, and restrain that excessive and exclusive taste for well-being which men acquire in times of equality.
Democracy in America, Volume II (1840)
In the United States, the majority undertakes to supply a multitude of ready-made opinions for the use of individuals, who are thus relieved from the necessity of forming opinions of their own.
Democracy in America, Volume II (1840)
The principle of equality does not destroy the imagination, but lowers its flight to the level of the earth.
Democracy in America, Volume II (1840)
They certainly are not great writers, but they speak their country's language and they make themselves heard.
Democracy in America, Volume II (1840)
I should have loved freedom, I believe, at all times, but in the time in which we live I am ready to worship it.
Democracy in America, Volume II (1840)
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.
Democracy in America, Volume II (1840)
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.
Democracy in America, Volume II (1840)
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.
Democracy in America, Volume II (1840)
There is hardly a pioneer's hut which does not contain a few odd volumes of Shakespeare. I remember reading the feudal drama of Henry V for the first time in a log cabin.
Democracy in America, Volume II (1840)
Every central government worships uniformity: uniformity relieves it from inquiry into an infinity of details.
Democracy in America, Volume II (1840)
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)
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)