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Christian Worldview of History and Culture Found in Quotes From Alexis DeTocqueville, French Philosopher It really is difficult to imagine how people who have entirely given up managing their own affairs could make a wise choice of those who are to do that for them. One should never expect a liberal, energetic, and wise government to originate in the votes of a people of servants. Alexis DeTocqueville, French philosopher Among the Anglo-Americans there are some who profess Christian dogmas because they believe them and others who do so because they are afraid to look as though they did not believe in them. So Christianity reigns without obstacles, by universal consent; consequently, as I have said elsewhere, everything in the moral field is certain and fixed, although the world of politics seems given over to argument and experiment. So the human spirit never sees an unlimited field before itself; however bold it is, from time to time it feels that it must halt before insurmountable barriers. Before innovating, it is forced to accept certain primary assumptions and to submit its boldest conceptions to certain formalities which retard and check it. Alexis DeTocquville, French philosopher
In New England every citizen is instructed in the elements of human knowledge; he is also taught the doctrine and the evidences of his religion; he must know the history of his country and the main features of its Constitution. In Connecticut and Massachusetts you will very seldom find a man whose knowledge of all these things is only superficial, and anybody completely unaware of them is quite an oddity.
All the sects in the United States belong to the great unity of Christendom, and Christian morality is everywhere the same. Alexis DeTocqueville I have never found American women regarding cojugal authority as a blessed usurpation of their rights or feeling that they degraded themselves by submitting to it. On the contrary, they seem to take pride in the free relinquishment of their will, and it is their boast to bear the yoke themselves rather than to escape from it. That, at least, is the feeling expressed by the best of them; the others keep quiet, and in the United States one never hears an adulterous wife noisily proclaiming the rights of women while stamping the most hallowed duties under foot. Alexis DeTocqueville, French philosopher No one in the United States has pretended that, in a free country, a man has a right to do everything; on the contrary, more varied social obligations have been imposed on him than elsewhere; no one thought to attack the very basis of social power or contest its rights; the object was only to divide up the right to exercise it. By this means it was hoped that authority would be made great, but officials small, so that the state could still be well regulated and remain free. Alexis DeTocqueville No stigma attaches to the love of money in America, and provided it does not exceed the bounds imposed by public order, it is held in honor. The American will describe as noble and estimable ambition that our medieval ancestors would have called base cupidity. Alexis DeTocqueville, French philosopher They (Americans) think that nature, which created such great differences between the physical and moral constitution of men and women, clearly intended to give their diverse faculties a diverse employment; and they consider that progress consists not in making dissimilar creatures do roughly the same things but in giving both a chance to do their job as well as possible. The Americans have applied to the sexes the great principle of political economy which now dominates industry. They have carefully separated the functions of man and of woman so that the great work of society may be better performed. Alexis DeTocqueville, French philosopher The safeguard of morality is religion, and morality is the best security of law as well as the surest pledge of freedom. Alexis DeTocqueville, French philosopher The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is imposible to make them conceive the one without the other. Alexis DeTocqueville, French philosopher From the earliest settlement of the emigrants, politics and religion contracted an alliance which has never been dissolved. Alexis DeTocqueville ...almost all education is intrusted to the clergy. Alexis DeTocqueville, speaking of Christian morality in America in the early nineteenth century This Rock (Plymouth Rock) has become an object of veneration in the United States. I have seen bits of it carefully preserved in several towns in the Union. Does this sufficiently show that all human power and greatness is in the soul of man? Here is a stone which the feet of a few outcasts pressed for an instant; and the stone becomes famous; it is treasured by a great nation; its very dust is shared as a relic. Alexis DeTocqueville I do not question that the great austerity of manners that is observable in the United States arises, in the first instance, from religious faith. Alexis DeTocqueville
I do not know whether all Americans have a sincere faith in their religion – for who can read the secrets of the heart? - but I am certain that they hold it be indispensable to the maintainance 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 DeTocqueville American legislators, who have made almost every article in the criminal code less harsh, punish rape by death; and no other crime is judged with the same inexorable severity by publilc opinion. There is reason for this: as the Americans think nothing more precious than a woman's honor and nothing deserving no respect than her freedom, they think no punishment could be too severe for who take both from her against her will. Alexis DeTocqueville, French philosopher When men are all alike, they are all weak. Alexis DeTocqueville, French philosopher Men think that the greatness of the idea of unity lies in means. God sees it in the end. It is for that reason that the idea of greatness leads to a thousand mean actions. To force all men to march in step toward the same goal - tthat is a human idea. To encourage endless variety of actions but to bring them about so that in a thousand different ways all tend toward the fulfillment of one great design - that is a God-given idea. Alexis DeTocqueville, French philosopher The human idea of unity is almost always sterile, but that of God is immensely fruitful. Men think they prove their greatness by simplifying the means. God's object is simple but His means infinitely various. Alexis DeTocqueville, French philosopher ...what does decide events, gentlemen, is the essential spirit of the government...for God's sake, change the spirit of the government, for that spirit, I repeat, is leading you to the abyss. Alexis DeTocqueville, to a EuropeanChamber of Deputies Therefore, in all matters concerning the duties of citizens toward each other he (the individual) is subordinate. In all matters that concern himself alone he remains the master; he is free and owes an account of his actions to God alone. From this derives the maxim that the individual is the best and only judge of his own interest and that society has no right to direct his behavior unless it feels harmed by him or unless it needs his concurrence. Alexis deTocqueville, French philosopher No one in the United States has pretended that, in a free country, a man has the right to do everything; on the contrary, more varied social obligations have been imposed on him than elsewhere; no one thought to attack the very basis of social power or contest its rights; the object was only to divide up the right to exercise it. By this means it was hoped that authority would be made great, but officials small, so that the state could still be well regulated and remain free. Alexis deTocqueville, French philosopher The assembly responsible for drafting the second Constitution was not numerous, and it included the men of greatest intelligence and noblest character ever to have appeared in the New World. George Washington presided over it. Alexis deTocqueville, French philosopher The Mexicans, wishing to establish a federal system, took the federal Constitution of their Anglo-American neighbors as a model and copied it almost completely. But when they borrowed the letter of the law, they could not at the same time transfer the spirit that gave it life. Alexis deTocqueville, French philosopher Do you not see that religions are growing weak and that the conception of the sanctity of rights is vanishing? Do you not see that mores are changing and that the moral conception of rights is being obliterated with them? Alexis deTocqueville, French philosopher There are countries in Europe where the inhabitant feels like some sort of farm laborer indifferent to the fate of the place where he dwells. The greatest changes may take place in his country without his concurrence; he does not even know precisely what has happened; he is in doubt; he has heard tell by chance of what goes on. Worse still, the condition of his village, the policing of his roads, and the repair of his church and parsonage do not concern him; he thinks that all those things have nothing to do with him at all, but belong to a powerful stranger called government. For his part, he enjoys what he has as tenant, without feeling of ownership or any thought of improvement. His detachment from his own fate goes so far that if his own safety or that of his children is in danger, instead of trying to ward the peril off, he crosses his arms and waits for the whole nation to come to his aid. Furthermore, this man who has so completely sacrificed his freedom of will does not like obedience more than the next man. He submits, it is true, to the caprice of a clerk, but as soon as force is withdrawn, he will vaunt his triumph over the law as over a conquered foe. Thus he oscillates the whole time between servility and license. When nations reach that point, either they must modify both laws and mores or they will perish, for the fount of publilc virtues has run dry; there are subjects still, but no citizens. I say that such nations are made ready for conquest. Alexis DeTocqueville, French philosopher ...if you admit that a man vested with omnipotence can abuse it against his adversaries, why not admit the same concerning a majority?...I will never grant to several that power to do everything which I refuse to a single man. Alexis DeTocqueville, French philosopher From then onward, every time the federal government has gone into the ring against those of the states it has almost invariably been obliged to retreat. When it has been a question of interpreting the terms of the Constitution, that interpretation has generally been against the Union and in favor of the states. Alexis DeTocqueville, French philosopher Tyranny can use even the law as its instrument... Alexis DeTocqueville, French philosopher
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