Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocquevillewas a French diplomat, political scientist, and historian. He was best known for his works Democracy in Americaand The Old Regime and the Revolution. In both he analyzed the improved living standards and social conditions of individuals, as well as their relationship to the market and state in Western societies. Democracy in America was published after Tocqueville's travels in the United States, and is today considered an early work of sociology and political science...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionHistorian
Date of Birth29 July 1805
CountryFrance
Nobody is going to occupy a place higher than I.
To remain silent is the most useful service that a mediocre speaker can render to the public good.
Every central government worships uniformity: uniformity relieves it from inquiry into an infinity of details.
As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of everything in this world only in the answer to this single question: how much money will it bring in?
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.
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.
Nothing is so dangerous as that of violence employed by well-meaning people for beneficial objects.
No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country.
When I refuse to obey an unjust law, I do not contest the right of the majority to command, but I simply appeal from the sovereignty of the people to the sovereignty of mankind.
There is no country in the world in which everything can be provided for by the laws, or in which political institutions can prove a substitute for common sense and public morality.
The tie of language is perhaps the strongest and the most durable that can unite mankind.
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.
Consider any individual at any period of his life, and you will always find him preoccupied with fresh plans to increase his comfort.
Society is endangered not by the great profligacy of a few, but by the laxity of morals amongst all.