Physical strength therefore is one of the first conditions of happiness and even of the existence of nations.

Consider any individual at any period of his life, and you will always find him preoccupied with fresh plans to increase his comfort. Do not talk to him about the interests and rights of the human race; that little private business of his for the moment absorbs all his thoughts, and he hopes that public disturbances can be put off to some other time.

The aspect of American society is animated, because men and things are always changing; but it is monotonous, because all the changes are alike.

The progress of democracy seems irresistible, because it is the most uniform, the most ancient and the most permanent tendency which is to be found in history.

Society was cut in two: those who had nothing united in common envy; those who had anything united in common terror.

In America a woman loses her independence for ever in the bonds of matrimony. While there is less constraint on girls there than anywhere else, a wife submits to stricter obligations. For the former, her father's house is a home of freedom and pleasure; for the latter, her husband's is almost a cloister.

What is understood by republican government in the United States is the slow and quiet action of society upon itself.