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Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes about Heart

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Religion in America . . . Must be regarded as the foremost of the political institutions for that country; for if it does not impart a taste for freedom, it facilitates the use of it . . . I do know know whether all

Religion in America . . . Must be regarded as the foremost of the political institutions for that country; for if it does not impart a taste for freedom, it facilitates the use of it . . . I do know know whether all Americans have a sincere faith in their religion - for who can search the human heart? - But I am certain that they hold it to be indispensable to the maintenance of republican institutions. This opinion is not peculiar to a class of citizens or a party, but it belongs to the whole nation and to every rank of society.

Alexis de Tocqueville
Country, Party, Heart

There is, in fact, a manly and lawful passion for equality which excites men to wish all to be powerful and honored. This passion tends to elevate the humble to the rank of the great; but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level, and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom.

Alexis de Tocqueville
Powerful, Passion, Heart
Alexis de Tocqueville (1839). “Democracy in America”, p.50

Every nation that has ended in tyranny has come to that end by way of good order. It certainly does not follow from this that peoples should scorn public peace, but neither should they be satisfied with that and nothing more. A nation that asks nothing of government but the maintenance of order is already a slave in the depths of its heart; it is a slave of its well-being, ready for the man who will put it in chains.

Alexis de Tocqueville
Heart, Men, Order

Equality is a slogan based on envy. It signifies in the heart of every republican: "Nobody is going to occupy a place higher than I."

Alexis de Tocqueville
Heart, Equality, Envy
Conversation with Nassau William Senior on May 22, 1850 "Correspondence and Conversations of Alexis de Tocqueville with Nassau William Senior from 1834 to 1859", p. 94, 1872.

When an opinion has taken root in a democracy and established itself in the minds of the majority, it afterward persists by itself, needing no effort to maintain it since no one attacks it. “Those who at first rejected it as false come in the end to adopt it as accepted, and even those who still at the bottom of their hearts oppose it keep their views to themselves, taking great care to avoid a dangerous and futile contest.

Alexis de Tocqueville
Taken, Heart, Views
Alexis de Tocqueville (1990). “Democracy in America”

Not only does democracy make every man forget his ancestors, but also clouds their view of their descendants and isolates them from their contemporaries. Each man is for ever thrown back on himself alone, and there is danger that he may be shut up in the solitude of his own heart.

Alexis de Tocqueville
Heart, Men, Clouds
"Democracy in America". Book by Alexis de Tocqueville, Volume II. Book Two, Chapter II, 1840.

But one also finds in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to want to bring the strong down to their level, and which reduces men to preferring equality in servitude to inequality in freedom.

Alexis de Tocqueville
Strong, Heart, Men
"Democracy in America" by Alexis de Tocqueville, Volume I, Chapter III, Part I, 1835.

I considered mores to be one of the great general causes responsible for the maintenance of a democratic republic . . . the term "mores" . . . meaning . . . habits of the heart.

Alexis de Tocqueville
Heart, Maintenance, Republic

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