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. - 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 colors breaking through. - Alexis De Tocqueville
Ainsi donc, en s’alliant à un pouvoir politique, la religion augmente sa puissance sur quelques-uns, et perd l’espérance de régner sur tous. - Alexis de Tocqueville
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
Egotism fears its own self. - Alexis de Tocqueville
It's not an endlessly expanding list of rights — the 'right' to education, the 'right' to health care, the 'right' to food and housing. That's not freedom, that's dependency. Those aren't rights, those are the rations of slavery — hay and a barn for human cattle. - Alexis de Tocqueville
There is hardly a political question in the United States which doesn't sooner or later turn into a judicial one. - 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
Sixty years is too brief a compass for man’s imagination. The incomplete joys of this world can never satisfy his heart. - Alexis de Tocqueville
America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great. - Alexis de Tocqueville
America is a land of wonders, in which everything is in constant motion and every change seems an improvement. - Alexis de Tocqueville
There are now two great nations in the world, which starting from different points, seem to be advancing toward the same goal: the Russians and the Anglo-Americans...Each seems called by some secret design of Providence one day to hold in its hands the destinies of half the world. - Alexis de Tocqueville
Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith. - 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
I have always noticed in politics how often men are ruined by having too good a memory. - Alexis De Tocqueville