Famous quotes by Historians (page 3)

"In a revolution, as in a novel, the most difficult part to invent is the end"

"I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America"

"I cannot help fearing that men may reach a point where they look on every new theory as a danger, every innovation as a toilsome trouble, every social advance as a first step toward revolution, and that they may absolutely refuse to move at all"

Alexis de Tocqueville, Historian

"History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies"

Alexis de Tocqueville, Historian

"He was as great as a man can be without morality"

Alexis de Tocqueville, Historian

"Grant me thirty years of equal division of inheritances and a free press, and I will provide you with a republic"

Alexis de Tocqueville, Historian

"Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude"

Alexis de Tocqueville, Historian

"Consider any individual at any period of his life, and you will always find him preoccupied with fresh plans to increase his comfort"

Alexis de Tocqueville, Historian

"As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of everything in this world only in the answer to this single question: how much money will it bring in?"

Alexis de Tocqueville, Historian

"An American cannot converse, but he can discuss, and his talk falls into a dissertation. He speaks to you as if he was addressing a meeting; and if he should chance to become warm in the discussion, he will say "Gentlemen" to the person with whom he is conversing"

Alexis de Tocqueville, Historian

"Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom"

Alexis de Tocqueville, Historian

"All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it"

Alexis de Tocqueville, Historian

"A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it"

Alexis de Tocqueville, Historian

"When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness"

Alexis de Tocqueville, Historian

"What is most important for democracy is not that great fortunes should not exist, but that great fortunes should not remain in the same hands. In that way there are rich men, but they do not form a class"

Alexis de Tocqueville, Historian

"We succeed in enterprises which demand the positive qualities we possess, but we excel in those which can also make use of our defects"

Alexis de Tocqueville, Historian

"The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens"

Alexis de Tocqueville, Historian

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

Alexis de Tocqueville, Historian

"The 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 Tocqueville, Historian

"The French want no-one to be their superior. The English want inferiors. The Frenchman constantly raises his eyes above him with anxiety. The Englishman lowers his beneath him with satisfaction"

Alexis de Tocqueville, Historian

"The debates of that great assembly are frequently vague and perplexed, seeming to be dragged rather than to march, to the intended goal. Something of this sort must, I think, always happen in public democratic assemblies"

Alexis de Tocqueville, Historian

"The Americans combine the notions of religion and liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive of one without the other"

Alexis de Tocqueville, Historian

"Nothing seems at first sight less important than the outward form of human actions, yet there is nothing upon which men set more store: they grow used to everything except to living in a society which has not their own manners"

Alexis de Tocqueville, Historian