“Montaigne said long ago: "Were I not to follow the straight road for its straightness, I should follow it for having found by experience that in the end it is commonly the happiest and most useful track." The doctrine of interest rightly understood is not then new, but among the Americans of our time it finds universal acceptance; it has become popular there; you may trace it at the bottom of all their actions, you will remark it in all they say.”
Alexis de Tocqueville“I didn't want to be an immigrant. I was forced to be an immigrant. Alexis de Tocqueville, the French writer, said that the powerful and the happy never go into exile. He was right.”
Jorge Ramos“When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.”
Alexis de Tocqueville“The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through.”
Alexis de Tocqueville“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“No state of society or laws can render men so much alike but that education, fortune, and tastes will interpose some differences between them; and though different men may sometimes find it their interest to combine for the same purposes, they will never make it their pleasure.”
Alexis de Tocqueville“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.”
Alexis de Tocqueville“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“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“In other words, 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“There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.”
Alexis de Tocqueville