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Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes

Alexis de Tocqueville quotes about people

French Historian July 29, 1805 – April 16, 1859

Alexis de Tocqueville quotes in french
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Quotes

It would seem as if the rulers of our time sought only to use men in order to make things great; I wish that they would try a little more to make great men; that they would set less value on the work and more upon the workman; that they would never forget that a nation cannot long remain strong when every man belonging to it is individually weak; and that no form or combination of social polity has yet been devised to make an energetic people out of a community of pusillanimous and enfeebled... Alexis de Tocqueville
Our contemporaries are constantly wracked by two warring passions: they feel the need to be led and the desire to remain free. Unable to destroy either of these contrary instincts, they seek to satisfy both at once. They imagine a single, omnipotent, tutelary power, but one that is elected by the citizens. They combine centralization with popular sovereignty. This gives them some respite. They console themselves for being treated as wards by imagining that they have chosen their own... Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville quote: "Those that despise people will never get the best out of..."
Those that despise people will never get the best out of others and themselves. Alexis de Tocqueville
Every nation that has ended in tyranny has come to that end by way of good order. It certainly does not follow from this that peoples should scorn public peace, but neither should they be satisfied with that and nothing more. A nation that asks nothing of government but the maintenance of order is already a slave in the depths of its heart; it is a slave of its well-being, ready for the man who will put it in chains. Alexis de Tocqueville
I have always thought it rather interesting to follow the involuntary movements of fear in clever people. Fools coarsely display their cowardice in all its nakedness, but the others are able to cover it with a veil so delicate, so daintily woven with small plausible lies, that there is some pleasure to be found in contemplating this ingenious work of the human intelligence. Alexis de Tocqueville
Society will develop a new kind of servitude which covers the surface of society with a network of complicated rules, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate. It does not tyrannise 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
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. Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville quote: "The power of the periodical press is second only to that of..."
The power of the periodical press is second only to that of the people. Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville quote: "There are two things which a democratic people will always..."
There are two things which a democratic people will always find very difficult - to begin a war and to end it. Alexis de Tocqueville

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