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
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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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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
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In politics, shared hatreds are almost always the basis of friendships.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville
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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
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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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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
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The regime which is destroyed by a revolution is almost always an improvement on its immediate predecessor, and experience teaches that the most critical moment for bad governments is the one which witnesses their first steps toward reform.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville
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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
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History, it is easily perceived, is a picture-gallery containing a host of copies and very few originals.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville
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