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My Favorite Quotes of Alexis de Tocqueville

Alexis de Tocqueville (29 July 1805 – 16 April 1859) was a French diplomat, political philosopher, and historian. He is best known for his works Democracy in America (appearing in two volumes, 1835 and 1840) and The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856). In both, he analyzed individuals' living standards and social conditions, as well as their relationships to the market and the state, in Western societies. Democracy in America was published after Tocqueville's travels in the United States and is considered an early work of sociology and political science today. Here are some of his most impactful quotes:

On Liberty and Freedom

• “Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.”
• “Despotism often presents itself as the repairer of all the ills suffered, the support of just rights, defender of the oppressed, and founder of order.”
• “I have only one passion, the love of liberty and human dignity.”
• “Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.”
• “Nothing is more wonderful than the art of being free, but nothing is harder to learn how to use than freedom.”
• “Society will develop a new kind of servitude which covers the surface of society with a network of complicated rules, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate.”
• “The man who asks of freedom anything other than itself is born to be a slave.”
• “There is in fact a manly and legitimate passion for equality that spurs all men to wish to be strong and esteemed. This passion tends to elevate the lesser to the rank of the greater. But one also finds in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to want to bring the strong down to their level, and which reduces men to preferring equality in servitude to inequality in freedom.”
• “To live in freedom, one must grow used to a life full of agitation, change, and danger.”

On Democracy and Socialism

• “As for me, I am deeply a democrat; this is why I am in no way a socialist. Democracy and socialism cannot go together. You can't have it both ways. Socialism is a new form of slavery.”
• “Democracy does not create strong ties between people. But it does make living together easier.”
• “Democracy extends the sphere of individual freedom, socialism restricts it. Democracy attaches all possible value to each man; socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. 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.”
• “In a democracy, the individual enjoys not only the ultimate power but carries ultimate responsibility.”
• “In a democracy, the people get the government they deserve.”
• “The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by its private citizens.”

On Society and Governance

• “A decline of public morals in the United States will probably be marked by the abuse of the power of impeachment as a means of crushing political adversaries or ejecting them from office.”
• “I am deeply convinced that any permanent, regular administrative system whose aim is to provide for the needs of the poor will breed more miseries than it can cure, will deprave the population that it wants to help and comfort, will dry up the sources of savings, will stop the accumulation of capital, will retard the development of trade, and will benumb human industry.”
• “I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run.”
• “It is indeed difficult to imagine how men who have entirely renounced the habit of managing their own affairs could be successful in choosing those who ought to lead them.”
• “The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.”
• “The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.”
• “There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.”
• “There is hardly a political question in the United States which does not sooner or later turn into a judicial one.”
• “When the taste for physical gratifications among them has grown more rapidly than their education . . . the time will come when men are carried away and lose all self-restraint . . . . It is not necessary to do violence to such a people in order to strip them of the rights they enjoy; they themselves willingly loosen their hold. . . . they neglect their chief business which is to remain their own masters.”

On Islam

• “I studied the Quran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction that by and large there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as that of Muhammad. As far as I can see, it is the principal cause of the decadence so visible today in the Muslim world and, though less absurd than the polytheism of old, its social and political tendencies are in my opinion more to be feared, and I therefore regard it as a form of decadence rather than a form of progress in relation to paganism itself.”
• “Muhammad brought down from heaven and put into the Koran not religious doctrines only, but political maxims, criminal and civil laws, and scientific theories. The Gospels on the other hand, deal only with the general relations between man and God and between man and man. Beyond that, they teach nothing and do not oblige people to believe anything. That alone, among a thousand reasons, is enough to show that Islam will not be able to hold its power long in ages of enlightenment and democracy, while Christianity is destined to reign in such ages, as in all others.”

These quotes reflect Tocqueville's critical examination of democratic societies and the complexities of freedom and equality. His work continues to resonate in discussions about governance and individual rights today. We would all do well to remember his insights.