The First thing that strikes a traveler in the United States is the innumerable multitude of those who seek to emerge from their original condition; and the second is the rarity of lofty ambition to be observed in the midst of the universally ambitious stir of society.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville
:::
I am far from denying that newspapers in democratic countries lead citizens to do very ill-considered things in common; but without newspapers there would be hardly any common action at all. So they mend many more ills than they cause.
~ 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
:::
Laws are always unstable unless they are founded on the manners of a nation; and manners are the only durable and resisting power in a people.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville
:::
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
:::
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?
~ Alexis de Tocqueville
:::
General ideas are no proof of the strength, but rather of the insufficiency of the human intellect.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville
:::
The power of the periodical press is second only to that of the people.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville
:::
The pursuit of wealth generally diverts men of great talents and strong passions from the pursuit of power; and it frequently happens that a man does not undertake to direct the fortunes of the state until he has shown himself incompetent to conduct his own.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville
:::