A malevolent literary device for cramping the growth of a language and making it hard and inelastic. This dictionary, however, is a most useful work.

I have always noticed in politics how often men are ruined by having too good a memory.

The principle of equality does not destroy the imagination, but lowers its flight to the level of the earth.

There is no philosopher in the world so great but he believes a million things on the faith of other people and accepts a great many more truths than he demonstrates

The last thing abandoned by a party is its phraseology.

Democratic institutions generally give men a lofty notion of their country and themselves.

On close inspection, we shall find that religion, and not fear, has ever been the cause of the long-lived prosperity of an absolute government.

I see no clear reason why the doctrine of self-interest properly understood should turn men away from religious beliefs.

But one also finds in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to want to bring the strong down to their level, and which reduces men to preferring equality in servitude to inequality in freedom.

The happy and powerful do not go into exile, and there are no surer guarantees of equality among men than poverty and misfortune.

The Union was formed by the voluntary agreement of the States; and these, in uniting together, have not forfeited their Nationality, nor have they been reduced to the condition of one and the same people. If one of the States chose to withdraw its name from the contract, it would be difficult to disprove its right of doing so

The nations of our time cannot prevent the conditions of men from becoming equal, but it depends upon themselves whether the principle of equality is to lead them to servitude or freedom, to knowledge or barbarism, to prosperity or wretchedness.

The legislator is like the navigator of a ship on the high seas. He can steer the vessel on which he sails, but he cannot alter its construction, raise the wind, or stop the waves from swelling beneath his feet.

Countries, therefore, when lawmaking falls exclusively to the lot of the poor cannot hope for much economy in public expenditure; expenses will always be considerable, either because taxes cannot touch those who vote for them or because they are assessed in a way to prevent that.

The last thing a political party gives up is its vocabulary.

Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot. How is it possible that society should escape destruction if the moral tie is not strengthened in proportion as the political tie is relaxed? And what can be done with a people who are their own masters if they are not submissive to the Deity?

Despotism can do without faith but freedom cannot.

Amongst democratic nations, each new generation is a new people

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.

The will of the nation is one of those phrases most widely abused by schemers and tyrants of all ages.

There is hardly a pioneer’s hut which does not contain a few odd volumes of Shakespeare. I remember reading the feudal drama of Henry V for the first time in a log cabin.

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

It is far more important to resist apathy than anarchy or despotism, for apathy can give rise, almost indifferently, to either one.

A long war almost always places nations in this sad alternative: that their defeat delivers them to destruction and their triumph to despotism.

Men seldom take the opinion of their equal, or of a man like themselves, upon trust.

I studied the Koran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as that of Muhammad.

Trade is the natural enemy of all violent passions. Trade loves moderation, delights in compromise, and is most careful to avoid anger. It is patient, supple, and insinuating, only resorting to extreme measures in cases of absolute necessity

The more alike men are, the weaker each feels in the face of all.

Furthermore, when citizens are all almost equal, it becomes difficult for them to defend their independence against the aggressions of power

How could a society escape destruction if, when political ties are relaxed, moral ties are not tightened, and what can be done with a people master of itself if it not subject to God?

All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it

The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens.

As the past has ceased to throw its light upon the future, the mind of man wanders in obscurity.

Chance does nothing that has not been prepared beforehand.

Those that despise people will never get the best out of others and themselves.

Every central government worships uniformity: uniformity relieves it from inquiry into an infinity of details

We can state with conviction, therefore, that a man’s support for absolute government is in direct proportion to the contempt he feels for his country

Christianity is the companion of liberty in all its conflicts, the cradle of its infancy, and the divine source of its claims

Society is endangered not by the great profligacy of a few, but by the laxity of morals amongst all

In politics shared hatreds are almost always the basis of friendships.

Military discipline is merely a perfection of social servitude.

Righteous women in their circle of influence,
beginning in the home, can turn the world around.

A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.

There is no country in the world in which everything can be provided for by the laws, or in which political institutions can prove a substitute for common sense and public morality.

One of the most ordinary weaknesses of the human intellect is to seek to reconcile contrary principles, and to purchase peace at the expense of logic

Those who prize freedom only for the material benefits it offers have never kept it for long.

I have seen Americans making great and sincere sacrifices for the key common good and a hundred times I have noticed that, when needs be, they almost always gave each other faithful support

What is not yet done is only what we have not yet attempted to do.

If I were asked … to what the singular prosperity and growing strength of Americans ought mainly to be attributed, I should reply: To the superiority of their women

Life is to be entered upon with courage.

It is indeed difficult to imagine how men who have entirely renounced the habit of managing their own affairs could be successful in choosing those who ought to lead them. It is impossible to believe that a liberal, energetic, and wise government can ever emerge from the ballots of a nation of servants.

There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.

Socialism is a new form of slavery.

When a large number of organs of the press come to advance along the same track, their influence becomes almost irresistible in the long term, and public opinion, struck always from the same side, ends by yielding under their blows.

I am deeply convinced that any permanent, regular administrative system whose aim is to provide for the needs of the poor will breed more miseries than it can cure, will deprave the population that it wants to help and comfort, will dry up the sources of savings, will stop the accumulation of capital, will retard the development of trade, and will benumb human industry

Remember that life is neither pain nor pleasure; it is serious business, to be entered upon with courage and in a spirit of self-sacrifice

When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness

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. Socialism is a new form of slavery.

Any measure that establishes legal charity on a permanent basis and gives it an administrative form thereby creates an idle and lazy class, living at the expense of the industrial and working class.

Despotism often presents itself as the repairer of all the ills suffered, the support of just rights, defender of the oppressed, and founder of order

It is easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth.

Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude

Habit is a second nature which destroys the first

Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom

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

In order to enjoy the inestimable benefits that the liberty of the press ensures, it is necessary to submit to the inevitable evils it creates

Equality of conditions is the fundamental fact from which all others seem to be derived.

I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run

The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals; morals can turn the worst laws to advantage

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.

The most dangerous moment for a bad government is when it begins to reform

The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens

The truest expression of a people is in its dances and its music. Bodies never lie

Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith

The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults

The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colors breaking through

Democracy encourages the taste for physical gratification

If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius

In the United States, the majority undertakes to supply a multitude of ready-made opinions for the use of individuals, who are thus relieved from the necessity of forming opinions of their own

Americans are constantly fearful of change, yet what other society has seen so many changes?

Men will not receive education and manners from their equals, even though they are the wisest and most virtuous of men.

Inequality is the source of all evil, but property is the greatest of all rights; so that the rights of property are the most important of all rights

An American cannot converse, but he can discuss, and his talk falls into a dissertation

He who seeks freedom for anything but freedom’s self is made to be a slave

Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith

The power of the majority is so absolute and irresistible that one must give up one’s rights.

The main reason for the development of society and the happiness of the people is the gradual growth of the public spirit and the increase of public virtue

Nothing is more wonderful than the art of being free, but nothing is harder to learn.

The love of money is either the rapacity of avarice, which can never be satisfied, or the sublime enthusiasm of virtue

Despotism often presents itself as the restorer of order and by its very name it appeals to the memory of a long series of benefits

The genius of democracies is seen not only in the great number of new words introduced but even more in the new ideas they express

The most decided men of character are often those whose inferiority in talent prevents them from being self-confident

Nothing is more wonderful than the art of being free, but nothing is harder to learn how to use than freedom

Habit is a second nature which destroys the first

There is hardly a political question in the United States that does not eventually turn into a judicial one

The most critical moment for bad government is that which witnesses its first steps towards reform

The best time for frames of mind, and all the best proofs of self-possession, is to mark that the people with whom we are dealing are as fully entitled to their frames of mind as we are to ours.

I am satisfied that when the soul and body are in health, every other sort of health is superfluous

The best means of learning to bear with dignity the vicissitudes of fortune is to remember that they have all experienced them

In order to enjoy the inestimable benefits that the liberty of the press ensures, it is necessary to submit to the inevitable evils it creates

The learning of a few is the means of education of the many