Alexis de Tocqueville

I confess that in America I saw more than America; I sought there the image of democracy itself, with its inclinations, its character, its prejudices, and its passions, in order to learn what we have to fear or to hope from its progress.

I am not afraid that they will find bad governments, but that they will find governments that are not interested in the well-being of the people.

The Americans have a democratic constitution which they have not been prevented from creating, but which they have not been able to prevent from being democratic.

It is difficult to imagine how many of those who love liberty, and who sincerely desire it, are yet ready to give it up at the first alarm.

I have always thought that there was something more dangerous than despotism, and that was servitude voluntarily endured.

The most dangerous of all errors is to believe that there is no error.

I do not know if the people of the United States are better off, but I am sure that they are happier than the people of Europe.

The American has no past; he has only the present and the future. He lives in a perpetual state of creation; he is forever building, forever destroying, forever renewing.

I think that the species of oppression by which democratic nations are menaced is unlike anything which ever before existed in the world.

I do not know what to say of a society which, after having created a magnificent civilization, seems to be on the point of destroying itself by its own hands.

When I examine the state of Europe, I am forced to admit that there is no nation which does not carry within itself the seeds of its own destruction.

I have often seen that the love of liberty is not the only motive of action, and that there are many other passions which can lead men to do great things.

The greatest danger that threatens modern nations is the indifference of the majority to the public interest.

I am convinced that a great revolution is at hand, and that it will be more terrible than any that has yet occurred.

The Americans are a very peculiar people; they have a way of doing things which is entirely their own.

I confess that I am not much in love with what is called 'progress' in our days.

The taste for physical gratifications is everywhere on the increase; and it is a taste which, if it be not checked, will infallibly lead men to the most abject servitude.

I have seen in America the most perfect equality of conditions that can be imagined; and I have also seen the most profound inequalities.

The American is a man who is always in a hurry, always running, always trying to get ahead.

I am not a democrat, but I have a profound sympathy for democracy.