Nations, as well as man, almost always betray the most prominent features of their future destiny in their earliest years.

Of all nations, those submit to civilization with the most difficulty which habitually live by the chase.

A great democratic revolution is taking place in our midst.

But what most astonishes me in the United States, is not so much the marvelous grandeur of some undertakings, as the innumerable multitude of small ones.

Town meetings are to liberty what primary schools are to science; they bring it within the people's reach.

Generally speaking, only simple conceptions can grip the mind of a nation. An idea that is clear and precise even though false will always have greater power in the world than an idea that is true but complex.

There 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.