What is understood by republican government in the United States is the slow and quiet action of society upon itself.
Alexis de TocquevilleIn democratic ages men rarely sacrifice themselves for another, but they show a general compassion for all the human race. One never sees them inflict pointless suffering, and they are glad to relieve the sorrows of others when they can do so without much trouble to themselves. They are not disinterested, but they are gentle.
Alexis de TocquevilleGeneral ideas are no proof of the strength, but rather of the insufficiency of the human intellect.
Alexis de TocquevilleTown meetings are to liberty what primary schools are to science; they bring it within the people's reach.
Alexis de TocquevilleThe most durable monument of human labor is that which recalls the wretchedness and nothingness of man.
Alexis de TocquevilleI shall not fear to say that the doctrine of self-interest rightly understood seems to me of all the philosophic theories the most appropriate to the needs of men in our time, and that I see in it the most powerful guarantee against themselves that remains to them. The minds of the moralists of our day ought to turn, therefore, principally toward it. Even should they judge it imperfect, they would still have to adopt it as necessary.
Alexis de Tocqueville