It would seem as if the rulers of our time sought only to use men in order to make things great; I wish that they would try a little more to make great men; that they would set less value on the work and more upon the workman; that they would never forget that a nation cannot long remain strong when every man belonging to it is individually weak; and that no form or combination of social polity has yet been devised to make an energetic people out of a community of pusillanimous and enfeebled citizens.
Alexis de TocquevilleGeneral ideas are no proof of the strength, but rather of the insufficiency of the human intellect.
Alexis de TocquevilleThe genius of democracies is seen not only in the great number of new words introduced but even more in the new ideas they express.
Alexis de TocquevilleIt profits me but little, after all, that a vigilant authority always protects the tranquility of my pleasures and constantly averts all dangers from my path, without my care or concern, if this same authority is the absolute master of my liberty and my life.
Alexis de Tocqueville