Skip to content

We are sleeping on a volcano... A wind of revolution blows, the storm is on the horizon.

— Alexis de Tocqueville

Another quote →

Notes from Wikiquote

Speaking in the Chamber of Deputies just prior to to outbreak of revolution in Europe (1848).

Topics

Revolution

More quotes by Alexis de Tocqueville

Laws are always unstable unless they are founded on the manners of a nation; and manners are the only durable and resisting power in a people.

Democracy in America, Volume I (1835)

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)

I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.

Democracy in America, Volume I (1835)

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)

All Alexis de Tocqueville quotes →

You may also like

I have no doubt that the revolution will triumph. The people of the world will prevail, seize power, seize the means of production, wipe out racism, capitalism.

Huey P. Newton Revolutionary Suicide (1973)

Men do not lead the revolution; it is the Revolution that uses men.

Joseph de Maistre Considerations on France (1796)

We never talked about men or clothes or inconsequential things we got together. It was always Marx, Lenin and revolution - real girls' talk.

Nina Simone

The great revolution in the history of man, past, present and future, is the revolution of those determined to be free.

John F. Kennedy

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Alexis de Tocqueville (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.