Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes
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. The quotes below are attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville, organized by topic.
Browse Alexis de Tocqueville by topic
Alexis de Tocqueville on Freedom
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Attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville:
“Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.”
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“I should have loved freedom, I believe, at all times, but in the time in which we live I am ready to worship it.”
Book Four, Chapter VII. -
“Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot.”
Chapter XVII. -
Attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville:
“Nothing is more wonderful than the art of being free, but nothing is harder to learn how to use than freedom.”
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“Men sometimes submit to shame, to tyranny, to conquest, but they never long suffer anarchy. There is no people so barbarous that they escape this general law of humanity”
Second letter on Algeria (1837), Travels in Algeria p. 38
Alexis de Tocqueville on Knowledge
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“Journey to America, notebooks 1831-1832 translated by George Lawrence (1960)”
In the midst of this American society, so well policed, so sententious, so charitable, a cold selfishness and complete insensibility prevails when it is a question of the natives of the country. The Americans of the United States do not let their dogs hunt the Indians as do the Spaniards in Mexico, but at the bottom it is the same pitiless feeling which here, as everywhere else, animates the Europ -
“Second letter on Algeria (1837), Travels in Algeria p. 38”
Men sometimes submit to shame, to tyranny, to conquest, but they never long suffer anarchy. There is no people so barbarous that they escape this general law of humanity -
“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 occurri”
National Character of Americans—first impressions (1831) Oeuvres complètes, vol. VIII , p. 233 . -
“Original text: Les meilleures lois ne peuvent faire marcher une constitution en dépit des mœurs; les mœurs tirent parti des pires lois . C'est là une vérité commune, mais à laquelle mes études me ramènent sans cesse. Elle est placée dans mon esprit comme un point central. Je l'aperçois au bout de toutes mes idées.”
The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals; morals can turn the worst laws to advantage. That is a commonplace truth, but one to which my studies are always bringing me back. It is the central point in my conception. I see it at the end of all my reflections.
Alexis de Tocqueville on Mind
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“So many of my thoughts and feelings are shared by the English that England has turned into a second native land of the mind for me.”
Original text: J'ai tant de sentiments et d'idées qui me sont communes avec les Anglais, que l'Angleterre est devenue pour moi une seconde patrie intellectuelle. | Voyages en Angleterre et en Irlande ( Journeys to England and Ireland ), 1835.
Alexis de Tocqueville on Nature
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“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?”
Letter to Ernest de Chabrol, 9 June 1831 Selected Letters, ed. Roger Boesche, UofC Press 1985, p. 39 .
Alexis de Tocqueville on Politics
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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.”
Alexis de Tocqueville on Time
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“When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.”
As the past has ceased to throw its light upon the future, the mind of man wanders in obscurity.
Alexis de Tocqueville on Truth
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“The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals; morals can turn the worst laws to advantage. That is a commonplace truth, but one to which my studies are always bringing me back. It is the central point in my conception. I see it at the end of all my reflections.”
De la supériorité des mœurs sur les lois (1831) Oeuvres complètes, vol. VIII , p. 286 . | Original text: Les meilleures lois ne peuvent faire marcher une constitution en dépit des mœurs; les mœurs tirent parti des pires lois . C'est là une vérité commune, mais à laquelle mes études me ramènent sans cesse. Elle est placée dans mon esprit comme un point central. Je l'aperçois au bout de toutes mes i
Things actually not said by Alexis de Tocqueville
A number of widely-shared lines are circulated as Alexis de Tocqueville but are in fact from someone else. Did Alexis de Tocqueville say these? No. Each entry below pairs the line with the person who actually wrote it.
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Did Alexis de Tocqueville say this? No.
“America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: According to Michael A. Ledeen, this line has been falsely attributed to Tocqueville by Dwight Eisenhower , Bill Clinton , Colin Powell , Ross Perot and Pat Buchanan . See Tocqueville on American Character (2001), p. 25 . Hillary Clinton in her acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention (July 29
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Did Alexis de Tocqueville say this? No.
“It's not an endlessly expanding list of rights — the 'right' to education, the 'right' to health care, the 'right' to food and housing. That's not freedom, that's dependency. Those aren't rights, those are the rations of slavery — hay and a barn for human cattle.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: P. J. O'Rourke , Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut (1996), p. 227.
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Did Alexis de Tocqueville say this? No.
“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: This is a variant expression of a sentiment which is often attributed to Tocqueville or Alexander Fraser Tytler , but the earliest known occurrence is as an unsourced attribution to Tytler in "This is the Hard Core of Freedom" by Elmer T. Peterson in The Daily Oklahoman (9 December 1951): "A democra
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Did Alexis de Tocqueville say this? No.
“In a democracy, the people get the government they deserve.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: It was Joseph de Maistre who wrote in 1811 "Every nation gets the government it deserves.
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Did Alexis de Tocqueville say this? No.
“A decline of public morals in the United States will probably be marked by the abuse of the power of impeachment as a means of crushing political adversaries or ejecting them from office.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: It was John Innes Clark Hare in his book "American Constitutional Law - Volume 1" who claimed that this was from Toqueville in an unsourced paraphrase that started with "It was long since remarked by De Tocqueville..." Actual quote, from Toqueville's Democracy In America, Chapter VII: "When the Amer