The aspect of American society is animated, because men and things are always changing; but it is monotonous, because all the changes are alike.
Alexis De TocquevilleRead
I have an intellectual inclination for democratic institutions, but I am instinctively an aristocrat, which means that I despise and fear the masses. I passionately love liberty, legality, the respect for rights, but not democracy....liberty is my foremost passion. That is the truth.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses a conflict between valuing democratic ideals and having an inherent distrust of the masses.
Alexis De Tocqueville reveals a tension in his beliefs; while he appreciates the principles of democracy such as liberty and legal rights, he identifies more closely with aristocratic values and holds a certain disdain for the general populace. This duality reflects a complex understanding of governance, where liberty is held above all else, representing both a love for individual rights and a fear of collective decision-making.
Themes
DemocracyLibertyAristocracyRightsFear Of Masses
In practice
Example use cases
In a political debate emphasizing individual rights over collective decision-making.
More from Alexis De Tocqueville
All quotes →Democratic communities have a natural taste for freedom: left to themselves they will seek it, cherish it, and view any deprivation of it with regret. But for equality their passion is ardent, insatiable, incessant, invincible: they call for equality in freedom; and if they cannot obtain that, they still call for equality in slavery.
Alexis De TocquevilleRead
Religion, which never intervenes directly in the government of American society, should therefore be considered as the first of their political institutions
Alexis De TocquevilleRead
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 TocquevilleRead
The Indian knew how to live without wants, to suffer without complaint, and to die singing.
Alexis De TocquevilleRead
Grant me thirty years of equal division of inheritances and a free press, and I will provide you with a republic.
Alexis De TocquevilleRead
Similar quotes
You are not an observer, you are a participant.
Nhat HanhRead
But I didn't know what to say to him. What do you say to a man that by his own admission has no soul? Why would you say anything?
Cormac MccarthyRead
What is character but the determination of incident? What is incident but the illustration of character?
Henry JamesRead
Who on earth invented the silly convention that it is boring or impolite to talk shop? Nothing is more interesting to listen to, especially if the shop is not one's own.
W. H. AudenRead
BRAIN, n. An apparatus with which we think that we think. That which distinguishes the man who is content to be something from the man who wishes to do something. A man of great wealth, or one who has been pitchforked into high station, has commonly such a headful of brain that his neighbors cannot keep their hats on. In our civilization, and under our republican form of government, brain is so highly honored that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares of office.
Ambrose BierceRead
How many emperors and how many princes have lived and died and no record of them remains, and they only sought to gain dominions and riches in order that their fame might be ever-lasting.
Leonardo Da VinciRead