The man who asks of freedom anything other than itself is born to be a slave. — Alexis De Tocqueville

Despotism can do without faith but freedom cannot. — Alexis De Tocqueville

He who seeks freedom for anything but freedom’s self is made to be a slave. — Alexis De Tocqueville

America is a country where they have freedom of speech but everyone says the same thing. — Alexis De Tocqueville

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

No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country. — Alexis De Tocqueville

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

I should have loved freedom, I believe, at all times, but in the time in which we live I am ready to worship it. — Alexis De Tocqueville

To get the inestimable good that freedom of the press assures one must know how to submit to the inevitable evil it gives rise to. — Alexis De Tocqueville

Those who prize freedom only for the material benefits it offers have never kept it for long. — Alexis De Tocqueville

Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith. — Alexis De Tocqueville

I have only one passion, the love of liberty and human dignity. — Alexis De Tocqueville

Christianity is the companion of liberty in all its conflicts, the cradle of its infancy, and the divine source of its claims. — Alexis De Tocqueville

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. — Alexis De Tocqueville

In America the majority raises formidable barriers around the liberty of opinion; within these barriers an author may write what he pleases, but woe to him if he goes beyond them. — Alexis De Tocqueville

Town meetings are to liberty what primary schools are to science; they bring it within the people’s reach. — Alexis De Tocqueville

Amongst democratic nations, each new generation is a new people. — Alexis De Tocqueville

There are two things which will always be very difficult for a democratic nation: to start a war and to end it. — Alexis De Tocqueville

Democratic nations care but little for what has been, but they are haunted by visions of what will be. — Alexis De Tocqueville

The will of the nation is one of those phrases most widely abused by schemers and tyrants of all ages. — Alexis De Tocqueville

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. — Alexis De Tocqueville

Nations, as well as man, almost always betray the most prominent features of their future destiny in their earliest years. — Alexis De Tocqueville

Of all nations, those submit to civilization with the most difficulty which habitually live by the chase. — Alexis De Tocqueville

The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults. — Alexis De Tocqueville

The French constitute the most brilliant and the most dangerous nation in Europe and the best qualified in turn to become an object of admiration, hatred, pity or terror but never indifference. — Alexis De Tocqueville

Physical strength therefore is one of the first conditions of happiness and even of the existence of nations. — 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. — Alexis De Tocqueville

The taste which men have for liberty and that which they feel for equality are, in fact, two different things…among democratic nations they are two unequal things. — Alexis De Tocqueville

Nations are less disposed to make revolutions in proportion as personal property is augmented and distributed among them, and as the number of those possessing it is increased. — Alexis De Tocqueville

A long war almost always places nations in this sad alternative: that their defeat delivers them to destruction and their triumph to despotism. — Alexis De Tocqueville

Despotism may be able to do without religion, but democracy cannot. — Alexis De Tocqueville

On close inspection, we shall find that religion, and not fear, has ever been the cause of the long–lived prosperity of an absolute government. — Alexis De Tocqueville

Patriotism and religion are the only two motives in the world which can permanently direct the whole of a body politic to one end. — Alexis De Tocqueville

Liberty] considers religion as the safeguard of morality, and morality as the best security of law and the surest pledge of the duration of freedom. — Alexis De Tocqueville

Patriotism] is in itself a kind of religion: it does not reason, but it acts from the impulse of faith and sentiment. — Alexis De Tocqueville

In America religion is the road to knowledge, and the observance of the divine laws leads man to civil freedom. — Alexis De Tocqueville

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

I studied the Koran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as that of Muhammad. — Alexis De Tocqueville

There is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America. — Alexis De Tocqueville

As for me, I am deeply a democrat; this is why I am in no way a socialist. Democracy and socialism cannot go together. You can’t have it both ways. Socialism is a new form of slavery. — Alexis De Tocqueville

Democracy does not create strong ties between people. But it does make living together easier. — Alexis De Tocqueville

No men are less addicted to reverie than the citizens of a democracy. — Alexis De Tocqueville

The progress of democracy seems irresistible, because it is the most uniform, the most ancient and the most permanent tendency which is to be found in history. — Alexis De Tocqueville

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. — Alexis De Tocqueville

Can it be believed that the democracy, which has overthrown the feudal system and vanquished kings, will retreat before tradesmen and capitalists? — Alexis De Tocqueville

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. — Alexis De Tocqueville

Society is endangered not by the great profligacy of a few, but by the laxity of morals amongst all. — Alexis De Tocqueville

The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens. — Alexis De Tocqueville

What is understood by republican government in the United States is the slow and quiet action of society upon itself. — Alexis De Tocqueville

In countries where associations are free, secret societies are unknown. In America there are factions, but no conspiracies. — Alexis De Tocqueville

Society was cut in two: those who had nothing united in common envy; those who had anything united in common terror. — Alexis De Tocqueville

By obliging men to turn their attention to other affairs than their own, it rubs off that private selfishness which is the rust of society. — Alexis De Tocqueville

How could a society escape destruction if, when political ties are relaxed, moral ties are not tightened, and what can be done with a people master of itself if it not subject to God? — Alexis De Tocqueville

Slavery…dishonors labor. It introduces idleness into society, and with idleness, ignorance and pride, luxury and distress. It enervates the powers of the mind and benumbs the activity of man. — Alexis De Tocqueville

Lawyers belong to the people by birth and interest, and to the aristocracy by habit and taste; they may be looked upon as the connecting link of the two great classes of society. — Alexis De Tocqueville

In politics shared hatreds are almost always the basis of friendships. — Alexis De Tocqueville

The position of the Americans is quite exceptional, and it may be believed that no democratic people will ever be placed in a similar one. — Alexis De Tocqueville

Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom. — Alexis De Tocqueville

The only authors whom I acknowledge as American are the journalists. They, indeed, are not great writers, but they speak the language of their countrymen, and make themselves heard by them. — Alexis De Tocqueville

The 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. — Alexis De Tocqueville

If there ever are great revolutions there, they will be caused by the presence of the blacks upon American soil. — Alexis De Tocqueville

The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money. — Alexis De Tocqueville

When an American asks for the cooperation of his fellow citizens, it is seldom refused; and I have often seen it afforded spontaneously and with great good will. — Alexis De Tocqueville

If I were asked … to what the singular prosperity and growing strength of Americans ought mainly to be attributed, I should reply: To the superiority of their women. — Alexis De Tocqueville

The whole life of an American is passed like a game of chance, a revolutionary crisis, or a battle. — Alexis De Tocqueville

The people reign over the American political world as God rules over the universe. It is the cause and the end of all things; everything rises out of it and is absorbed back into it. — Alexis De Tocqueville

If an American was condemned to confine his activity to his own affairs, he would be robbed of one half of his existence. — Alexis De Tocqueville

With much care and skill power has been broken into fragments in the American township, so that the maximum possible number of people have some concern with public affairs. — Alexis De Tocqueville

The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through. — Alexis De Tocqueville

The aspect of American society is animated, because men and things are always changing; but it is monotonous, because all the changes are alike. — Alexis De Tocqueville