Democracy in America: Volume 1
Alexis de Tocqueville
Top 10 Best Quotes
“What is called family pride is often founded on the illusion of self-love. A man wishes to perpetuate and immortalize himself.”
“patriotism and religion are the only two motives in the world which can permanently direct the whole of a body politic to one end.”
“In reality it is far less prejudicial to witness the immorality of the great than to witness that immorality which leads to greatness.”
“This demonstrated to me that those who regard universal suffrage as a guarantee for good choices are under a complete illusion. Universal suffrage has other advantages, but not that one.”
“The pursuit of wealth generally diverts men of great talents and of great passions from the pursuit of power, and it very frequently happens that a man does not undertake to direct the fortune of the State until he has discovered his incompetence to conduct his own affairs.”
“The lawyers of the United States form a party which is but little feared and scarcely perceived, which has no badge peculiar to itself, which adapts itself with great flexibility to the exigencies of the time, and accommodates itself to all the movements of the social body; but this party extends over the whole community, and it penetrates into all classes of society; it acts upon the country imperceptibly, but it finally fashions it to suit its purposes.”
“I am unacquainted with a more deplorable spectacle than that of a people unable either to defend or to maintain its independence.”
“Men are much more forcibly struck by those inequalities which exist within the circle of the same class, than with those which may be remarked between different classes. It is more easy for them to admit slavery, than to allow several millions of citizens to exist under a load of eternal infamy and hereditary wretchedness.”
“But a democracy can only obtain truth as the result of experience, and many nations may forfeit their existence whilst they are awaiting the consequences of their errors.”
“nothing, on the other hand, can be more impenetrable to the uninitiated than a legislation founded upon precedents.”
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Book Keywords:
legislation, law, pride, lawyers, parenting
