Alexis de Tocqueville

The Americans are a very religious people, but they are also a very practical people.

The Americans have shown that it is possible to combine the greatest degree of individual liberty with the greatest degree of social order.

The most dangerous of all oppressions is the oppression of the majority, for it leaves no means of escape.

The love of equality is the most ardent and the most insatiable of all human passions.

Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.

I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run.

There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.

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.

He who seeks freedom for anything but freedom's own self is made to be a slave.

The most dangerous moment for a bad government is when it begins to reform.

In a revolution, as in a novel, the most difficult part to invent is the end.

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.

Nothing is more wonderful than the art of being free, but nothing is harder to learn how to use than freedom.

Despotism often presents itself as the repairer of all the ills suffered, the support of just rights, defender of the oppressed, and founder of order.

A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.

In politics shared hatreds are almost always the basis of friendships.

The French want no-one to be their superior. The English want inferiors. The Frenchman constantly raises his eyes above him with anxiety. The Englishman lowers his beneath him with satisfaction.

The power of the periodical press is second only to that of the people.

It is easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth.

The American will never build a wall around his house for fear of shutting out the public view.