"On close inspection, we shall find that religion, and not fear, has ever been the cause of the long-lived prosperity of an absolute government."
"everybody feels the evil, but no one has courage or energy enough to seek the cure"
"A whole nation cannot rise above itself."
"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."
"The whole people contracts the habits and tastes of the magistrate."
"When justice is more certain and more mild, is at the same time more efficacious."
"The only nations which deny the utility of provincial liberties are those which have fewest of them; in other words, those who are unacquainted with the institution are the only persons who passed censure upon it."
"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."
"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."
"Nothing is more necessary to the culture of the higher sciences, or of the more elevated departments of science, than meditation; and nothing is less suited to meditation than the structure of democratic society."
"For benefits by their very greatness spotlight the difference in conditions and arouse a secret annoyance in those who profit from them. But the charm of simple good manners is almost irresistible."
"In America religion is the road to knowledge, and the observance of the divine laws leads man to civil freedom."
"There is no country in the world in which everything can be provided for by laws, or in which political institutions can prove a substitute for common sense and public morality."
"Under the absolute sway of an individual despot the body was attacked in order to subdue the soul, and the soul escaped the blows which were directed against it and rose superior to the attempt; but such is not the course adopted by tyranny in democratic republics; there the body is left free, and the soul is enslaved."
"Nations as well as men require time to learn, whatever may be their intelligence or zeal."
"There is a natural prejudice which prompts men to despise whomsoever has been their inferior long after he has become their equal."
"The greatest difficulty in antiquity with that of altering the law; among the moderns, it is that of altering the manners."
"The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democracy, from beneath which the old aristocratic colors sometimes peep."
"Society is endangered not by the great profligacy of a few, but by the laxity of morals amongst all."
"Men will not accept truth at the hands of their enemies, and truth is seldom offered to them by their friends"
"In such an admirable position of the New World, man has no other enemy than himself."
"Durability is one of the chief elements of strength. Nothing is either loved or feared but that which is likely to endure."
"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."
"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."
"Slavery received, but the prejudice to which it has given birth remains stationary."