Nations, as well as man, almost always betray the most prominent features of their future destiny in their earliest years. When I contemplate the ardour with which the Anglo-Americans prosecute commercial enterprise, the advantages which befriend them, and the success of their undertakings, I cannot refrain from believing that they will one day become the first maritime power of the globe. They are born to rule the seas, as the Romans were to conquer the world.More Alexis De Tocqueville quotes [03/29/2018 05:03:36]

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.More Alexis De Tocqueville quotes [03/29/2018 05:03:36]

So many of my thoughts and feelings are shared by the English that England has turned into a second native land of the mind for me.More Alexis De Tocqueville quotes [03/29/2018 05:03:36]

Despotism can do without faith but freedom cannot.More Alexis De Tocqueville quotes [03/29/2018 05:03:36]

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. It is impossible to believe that a liberal, energetic, and wise government can ever emerge from the ballots of a nation of servants.More Alexis De Tocqueville quotes [03/29/2018 05:03:36]