"The passion for war is so intense that there is no undertaking so mad, or so injurious to the welfare of the State, that a man does not consider himself honored in defending it, at the risk of his life."

"Society was cut in two: those who had nothing united in common envy, those who had anything united in common terror."

"Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith."

"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."

"Durability is one of the chief elements of strength. Nothing is either loved or feared but that which is likely to endure."

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

"Men are not corrupted by the exercise of power, or debased by the habit of obedience; but by the exercise of a power which they believe to be illegitimate, and by obedience to a rule which they consider to be usurped and oppressive."

"There is hardly a political question in the United States which does not sooner or later turn into a judicial one."

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

"The free worker receives a wage; the slave an education, food, care, clothing; the money that the master spends to keep the slave is drained little by little and in detail; one hardly perceives it."

"In the midst of the apparent diversity of human affairs, a certain number of primary facts may be discovered, from which all others are derived."

"He who in given cases consents to obey his fellows with servility, and who submits his will, and even his thoughts, to their control, how can he pretend that he wishes to be free?"

"Human understanding more easily invents new things than new words."

"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."

"Nothing, on the other hand, can be more impenetrable to the uninitiated than a legislation founded upon precedents."

"Nations, as well as men, almost always betray the most prominent features of their future destiny in their earliest years."

"These diverse effects of slavery and freedom are easily understood: the men in Kentucky [neither] have zeal nor enlightenment cross over into Ohio in order to utilize their industry and to be able to exercise it without shame in Kentucky, masters make slaves work without being obliged to pay them, but they receive little fruit from their efforts, while the money that they would give to free workers would be recovered with interest from the value of their labors."

"Nothing conceivable is so petty, so insipid, so crowded with paltry interests, in one word, so anti-poetic, as the life of a man in the United States."

"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."

"What good does it do me, after all, if an ever-watchful authority keeps an eye out to ensure that my pleasures will be tranquil and races ahead of me to ward off all danger, sparing me the need even to think about such things, if that authority, even as it removes the smallest thorns from my path, is also absolute master of my liberty and my life; if it monopolizes vitality and existence to such a degree that when it languishes, everything around it must also languish; when it sleeps, everything must also sleep; and when it dies, everything must also perish?"

"A central administration enervates the nations in which it exists by incessantly diminishing their public spirit. If such an administration succeeds in convincing all the disposable resources of a people, it impairs at least the renewal of those resources."

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

"In America religion is the road to knowledge, and the observance of the divine laws leads man to civil freedom."

"The Indian knew how to live without wants, to suffer without complaint, and to die singing."

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

"Society is endangered not by the great profligacy of a few, but by the laxity of morals amongst all."

"Everybody feels the evil, but no one has courage or energy enough to seek the cure."

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

"There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle."

"America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."

"In the United States, the majority undertakes to supply a multitude of ready-made opinions for the use of individuals, who are thus relieved from the necessity of forming opinions of their own."

"Now, these eager and apprehensive men of small property constitute the class which is constantly increased by the equality of conditions. Hence, in democratic communities, the majority of the people do not clearly see what they have to gain by a revolution, but they continually and in a thousand ways feel that they might lose by one."

"Chance does nothing that has not been prepared beforehand."

"When justice is more certain and more mild, is at the same time more efficacious."

"The greatest difficulty in antiquity with that of altering the law; among the moderns, it is that of altering the manners."

"Egotism fears its own self."

"It is, indeed, difficult to conceive how men who have entirely given up the habit of self-government should succeed in making a proper choice of those by whom they are to be governed; and no one will ever believe that a liberal, wise, and energetic government can spring from the suffrages of a subservient people."

"Patriotism is in itself a kind of religion: it does not reason, but it acts from the impulse of faith and sentiment."

"The whole life of an American is passed like a game of chance, a revolutionary crisis, or a battle."

"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money."

"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?"

"Slavery received, but the prejudice to which it has given birth remains stationary."

"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."

"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."

"The happy and powerful do not go into exile, and there are no surer guarantees of equality among men than poverty and misfortune."

"I had rather mistrust my own capacity than God's justice."

"The nations of our time cannot prevent the conditions of men from becoming equal; but it depends upon themselves whether the principle of equality is to lead them to servitude or freedom, to knowledge or barbarism, to prosperity or to wretchedness."

"Men will not accept truth at the hands of their enemies, and truth is seldom offered to them by their friends."

"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."

"The power of the periodical press is second only to that of the people."