Life is to entered upon with courage.
Alexis de Tocqueville

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

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

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

The French want no-one to be their superior. The English want inferiors. The Frenchman constantly raises his eyes above him with anxiety. The Englishman lowers his beneath him with satisfaction.
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

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

The Indian knew how to live without wants, to suffer without complaint, and to die singing.
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

The power of the periodical press is second only to that of the people.
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 whole life of an American is passed like a game of chance, a revolutionary crisis, or a battle.
Alexis de Tocqueville

There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.
Alexis de Tocqueville

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

There is hardly a pioneer's hut which does not contain a few odd volumes of Shakespeare. I remember reading the feudal drama of Henry V for the first time in a log cabin.
Alexis de Tocqueville

There is hardly a political question in the United States which does not sooner or later turn into a judicial one.
Alexis de Tocqueville

Those that despise people will never get the best out of others and themselves.
Alexis de Tocqueville