On this waterlogged landscape....are scattered palaces and hovels....It is here that the human spirit becomes perfect, and at the same time brutalised, that civilisation produces its marvels and that civilised man returns to the savage.

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

Equality is a slogan based on envy. It signifies in the heart of every republican: "Nobody is going to occupy a place higher than I."

If there ever are great revolutions there, they will be caused by the presence of the blacks upon American soil.

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

Americans of all ages, all stations of life, and all types of disposition are forever forming associations. In democratic countries knowledge of how to combine is the mother of all other forms of knowledge; on its progress depends that of all the others.

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