Alexis de Tocqueville 1805 – 1859
Alexis de Tocqueville was a French aristocrat, political philosopher, and historian. After a long study tour of the United States, undertaken nominally to examine its prison system, he produced Democracy in America, a penetrating examination of the conditions, dangers, and promise of modern democratic society. His later study The Old Regime and the Revolution argued that the French Revolution extended rather than overturned the centralizing tendencies of the monarchy. Tocqueville's analysis of equality, liberty, civil association, and the soft despotism of majority opinion remains a touchstone of political theory.
Key facts
- Nationality
- French
- Era
- Modern
- Movements
- Political
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville:
“There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.”
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Attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville:
“Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.”
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Attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville:
“When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.”
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Attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville:
“I should have loved freedom, I believe, at all times, but in the time in which we live I am ready to worship it.”
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Attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville:
“Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot.”