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Danh ngôn của Alexis de Tocqueville (Sứ mệnh: 4)

History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies.
There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.
We succeed in enterprises which demand the positive qualities we possess, but we excel in those which can also make use of our defects.
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.
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.
A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.
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.
Life is to be entered upon with courage.
The whole life of an American is passed like a game of chance, a revolutionary crisis, or a battle.
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.
I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.
In politics shared hatreds are almost always the basis of friendships.
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?
The power of the periodical press is second only to that of the people.
Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.
All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it.
No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country.
Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.
When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.
The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens.
There are two things which a democratic people will always find very difficult - to begin a war and to end it.
The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.
The main business of religions is to purify, control, and restrain that excessive and exclusive taste for well-being which men acquire in times of equality.
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.
It is the dissimilarities and inequalities among men which give rise to the notion of honor; as such differences become less, it grows feeble; and when they disappear, it will vanish too.
The Americans combine the notions of religion and liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive of one without the other.
I cannot help fearing that men may reach a point where they look on every new theory as a danger, every innovation as a toilsome trouble, every social advance as a first step toward revolution, and that they may absolutely refuse to move at all.
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.
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.