Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.... The subjection of individuals will increase amongst democratic nations, not only in the same proportion as their equality, but in the same proportion as their ignorance.

It is almost never when a state of things is the most detestable that it is smashed, but when, beginning to improve, it permits men to breathe, to reflect, to communicate their thoughts with each other, and to gauge by what they already have the extent of their rights and their grievances. The weight, although less heavy, seems then all the more unbearable.

Christianity is the companion of liberty in all its conflicts, the cradle of its infancy, and the divine source of its claims.

There is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America.

Every central government worships uniformity: uniformity relieves it from inquiry into an infinity of details.

The French under the old monarchy held it for a maxim that the king could do no wrong . The Americans entertain the same opinion with respect to the majority.... If ever the free institutions of America are destroyed, that event may be attributed to the omnipotence of the majority.

A man's admiration of absolute government is proportionate to the contempt he feels for those around him.