Hello,
Impressions and memoirs form the common thread in our writing group. Tonight, I ran across these “Brainy Quotes” of a favorite character of mine, Alexis de Tocqueville.
He was born in a wealthy family in Paris in 1805. Later, he spent several years researching the new American penitentiary system as a representative of the French government. This assignment happened in the early 1830s.
After his return to France, he wrote his reflections regarding life among the new Americans. That now famous, two-volume set of memoirs is called, “Democracy in America”. Tucked away neatly in one of my bookshelves, there is an old, tatted copy of “La démocratie en Amérique” still there as a reminder that I must finish it.
But, laziness again reigns over me and the text is still only partially read. Instead, I am sending you a few pithy excerpts from those volumes.
I found them delightful and I hope you will also respond with an occasional smile. Tongue-in-cheek humor was apparently popular with his French readers.
Take care,
Paul
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“ 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.”
“A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it. “
“Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.“
“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?”
“He was as great as a man can be without morality.”
“I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.”
“In no other country in the world is the love of property keener or more alert than in the United States, and nowhere else does the majority display less inclination toward doctrines which in any way threaten the way property is owned.”
A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.
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.
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.
”Consider any individual at any period of his life, and you will always find him preoccupied with fresh plans to increase his comfort.”