Alexis de Tocqueville

Alexis de Tocqueville

29 quotes

Known primarily as a French diplomat, political philosopher and historian, Alexis de Tocqueville also happens to be one of the most quotable figures in our collection. Known for his works Democracy in America and The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856), their words carry the weight of lived experience. 37 of Alexis de Tocqueville's sharpest quotes live here, spanning themes of Men, War, Society, Great, and Freedom. A line that stays with you: "The power of the periodical press is second only to that of the people."

“The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens.”

— Alexis de Tocqueville

Health

All Quotes by Alexis de Tocqueville

“Nothing seems at first sight less important than the outward form of human actions, yet there is nothing upon which men set more store: they grow used to everything except to living in a society which has not their own manners.”

— Alexis de Tocqueville

Society

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

— Alexis de Tocqueville

Power

“Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.”

— Alexis de Tocqueville

Equality

“The debates of that great assembly are frequently vague and perplexed, seeming to be dragged rather than to march, to the intended goal. Something of this sort must, I think, always happen in public democratic assemblies.”

— Alexis de Tocqueville

Great

“Life is to be entered upon with courage.”

— Alexis de Tocqueville

Courage

“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

Religion

“No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country.”

— Alexis de Tocqueville

Freedom

“Those that despise people will never get the best out of others and themselves.”

— Alexis de Tocqueville

Best

“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

Men

“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

Government

“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

Society

“What is most important for democracy is not that great fortunes should not exist, but that great fortunes should not remain in the same hands. In that way there are rich men, but they do not form a class.”

— Alexis de Tocqueville

Great

“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

Freedom

“History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies.”

— Alexis de Tocqueville

History

“The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens.”

— Alexis de Tocqueville

Health

“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

Equality

“I cannot help fearing that men may reach a point where they look on every new theory as a danger, every innovation as a toilsome trouble, every social advance as a first step toward revolution, and that they may absolutely refuse to move at all.”

— Alexis de Tocqueville

Men

“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.”

— Alexis de Tocqueville

Money

“When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.”

— Alexis de Tocqueville

Future

“There are two things which a democratic people will always find very difficult - to begin a war and to end it.”

— Alexis de Tocqueville

War