Alexis de Tocqueville

More from Alexis de Tocqueville

• Though it is very important for man as an individual that his religion should be true, that is not the case for society. Society has nothing to fear or hope from another life; what is most important for it is not that all citizens profess the true religion but that they should profess religion.

  Democracy in America, Volume I (1835), Chapter XVII.

  • Religion

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

  Democracy in America, Volume II (1840), Book Four, Chapter VIII

  • Time

• The most dangerous moment for a bad government is when it begins to reform.

  The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856), p. 214

  • Government

All 39 quotes from Alexis de Tocqueville

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• No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent.

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• I came, I saw, I conquered.

  Julius Caesar100–44 BCInscription on the triumphal wagon reported in The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius, as translated by Robert Graves (1957).

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• The unexamined life is not worth living.

  Socrates470–399 BCThe Apology of Socrates (399 BC)

  • Philosophy