There is hardly a political question in the United States which does not sooner or later turn into a judicial one |
Those that despise people will never get the best out of others and themselves. |
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. |
Trade is the natural enemy of all violent passions. Trade loves moderation, delights in compromise, and is most careful to avoid anger. It is patient, supple, and insinuating, only resorting to extreme measures in cases of absolute necessity. Trade makes men independent of one another and gives them a high idea of their personal importance: it leads them to want to manage their own affairs and teaches them to succeed therein. Hence it makes them inclined to liberty but disinclined to revolution. |
turn against themselves and consider their hopes as having been childish--their enthusiasm and, above all, their devotion absurd. |
Two things in America are astonishing: the changeableness of most human behavior and the strange stability of certain principles. Men are constantly on the move, but the spirit of humanity seems almost unmoved. |
We succeed in enterprises which demand the positive qualities we possess, but we excel in those which can also make use of our defects. |
What is the 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. |
When an opinion has taken root in a democracy and established itself in the minds of the majority, if 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. |
When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness. |
With much care and skill power has been broken into fragments in the American township, so that the maximum possible number of people have some concern with public affairs |