The power of the periodical press is second only to that of the people.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville
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Tag Archives: Alexis de Tocqueville
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Useful undertakings which require sustained attention and vigorous precision in order to succeed often end up by being abandoned, for, in America, as elsewhere, the people move forward by sudden impulses and short-lived efforts.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville
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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
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We are sleeping on a volcano. A wind of revolution blows, the storm is on the horizon.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville
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Born under another sky, placed in the middle of an always-moving scene, himself driven by the irresistible torrent which sweeps along everything that surrounds him, the American has no time to tie himself to anything; he grows accustomed to naught but change, and concludes by viewing it as the natural state of man; he feels a need for it; even more, he loves it: for instability, instead of occurring to him in the form of disasters, seems to give birth to nothing around him but wonders.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville
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As for me, I am deeply a democrat; this is why I am in no way a socialist. Democracy and socialism cannot go together. You can’t have it both ways.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville
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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
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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
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In politics, shared hatreds are almost always the basis of friendships.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville
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In a revolution, as in a novel, the most difficult part to invent is the end.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville
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