Democracy in America Quotes

“The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other; and with them this conviction does not spring from that barren traditionary faith which seems to vegetate in the soul rather than to live.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America: And Two Essays on America

“Germans Francis Grund, and Francis Lieber, and the Pole Adam G. de Gurowski all wrote about the striking social equality they found in America, the absence of differences in status. They all noted the American obsession with work and the restless quest for the “almighty dollar.”18”
― Alexis Tocqueville, Democracy in America: And Two Essays on America

“How is it possible that society should escape destruction if the moral tie be not strengthened in proportion as the political tie is relaxed? and what can be done with a people which is its own master, if it be not submissive to the Divinity?”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America: And Two Essays on America

“Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot. Religion is much more necessary in the republic..., than in the monarchy...; and it is more needed in democratic republics than in any others.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America: And Two Essays on America

“After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will, the government then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small, complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence: it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America: And Two Essays on America

“Commerce is naturally adverse to all the violent passions; it loves to temporize, takes delight in compromise, and studiously avoids irritation. It is patient, insinuating, flexible, and never has recourse to extreme measures until obliged by the most absolute necessity. Commerce renders men independent of each other, gives them a lofty notion of their personal importance, leads them to seek to conduct their own affairs, and teaches how to conduct them well; it therefore prepares men for freedom, but preserves them from revolutions.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America: And Two Essays on America

“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.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America: And Two Essays on America

“Nothing is quite so wretchedly corrupt as an aristocracy which has lost its power but kept its wealth and which still has endless leisure to devote to nothing but banal enjoyments. All its great thoughts and passionate energy are things of the past, and nothing but a host of petty, gnawing vices now cling to it like worms to a corpse.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America: And Two Essays on America

“In democratic ages men rarely sacrifice themselves for another, but they show a general compassion for all the human race.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America: And Two Essays on America

“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.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America: And Two Essays on America

“The President ... may err ... Congress may decide amiss ... But if the Supreme Court is ever composed of imprudent or bad men, the Union may be plunged into anarchy or civil war.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America: And Two Essays on America

“Though it is very important for man as an individual that his religion should be true, that is not the case for society. Society has nothing to fear or hope from another life; what is most important for it is not that all citizens profess the true religion but that they should profess religion.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America: And Two Essays on America

“An American cannot converse, but he can discuss, and his talk falls into a dissertation. He speaks to you as if he was addressing a meeting; and if he should chance to become warm in the discussion, he will say "Gentlemen" to the person with whom he is conversing.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America: And Two Essays on America

“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.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America: And Two Essays on America

“Furthermore, when citizens are all almost equal, it becomes difficult for them to defend their independence against the aggressions of power.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America: And Two Essays on America

“What good does it do me, after all, if an ever-watchful authority keeps an eye out to ensure that my pleasures will be tranquil and races ahead of me to ward off danger, sparing me the need even to think about such things, if that authority, even as it removes the smallest thorns from my path, is also absolute master of my liberty and my life; if it monopolizes vitality and existence to such a degree that when it languishes, everything around it must also languish; when it sleeps, everything must also sleep; and when it dies, everything must also perish?”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America: And Two Essays on America

“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.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America: And Two Essays on America

“Muhammad brought down from heaven and put into the Koran not religious doctrines only, but political maxims, criminal and civil laws, and scientific theories. The Gospels, on the other hand, deal only with the general relations between man and God and between man and man. Beyond that, they teach nothing and do not oblige people to believe anything. That alone, among a thousand reasons, is enough to show that Islam will not be able to hold its power long in ages of enlightenment and democracy, while Christianity is destined to reign in such ages, as in all others.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America: And Two Essays on America

“A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America: And Two Essays on America

“In order to enjoy the inestimable benefits that the liberty of the press ensures, it is necessary to submit to the inevitable evils it creates.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America: And Two Essays on America

“The New Englander is attached to his township because it is strong and independent; he has an interest in it because he shares in its management; he loves it because he has no reason to complain of his lot; he invests his ambition and his future in it; in the restricted sphere within his scope, he learns to rule society; he gets to know those formalities without which freedom can advance only through revolutions, and becoming imbued with their spirit, develops a taste for order, understands the harmony of powers, and in the end accumulates clear, practical ideas about the nature of his duties and the extent of his rights.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America: And Two Essays on America

“The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals; morals can turn the worst laws to advantage.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America: And Two Essays on America