Local assemblies of the people constitute the strength of free nations. Municipal institutions are to liberty what primary schools are to science: they bring it within the people's reach, and teach them how to use and enjoy it. A nation may establish a system of free government, but without the spirit of municipal institutions it cannot have the spirit of liberty.
Alexis de TocquevilleWhat is understood by republican government in the United States is the slow and quiet action of society upon itself.
Alexis de TocquevilleOne of the happiest consequences of the absence of government...is the development of individual strength that inevitably follows.
Alexis de TocquevilleNothing is so dangerous as that of violence employed by well-meaning people for beneficial objects.
Alexis de TocquevilleThere is, in fact, a manly and lawful passion for equality which excites men to wish all to be powerful and honored. This passion tends to elevate the humble to the rank of the great; but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level, and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom.
Alexis de TocquevilleAmong the droves of men with political ambitions in the United States, I found very few with that virile candor, that manly independence of thought, that often distinguished Americans in earlier times and that is invariably the preeminent trait of great characters wherever it exists.
Alexis de Tocqueville