The Americans never use the word peasant, because they have no idea of the class which that term denotes the ignorance of more remote ages, the simplicity of rural life, and the rusticity of the villager have not been preserved among them and they are alike unacquainted with the virtues, the vices, the coarse habits, and the simple graces of an early stage of civilization.
More Quotes from Alexis Tocqueville:
For their happiness such a government willingly labors, but it chooses to be the sole agent and the only arbiter of their necessities, facilitates their pleasures, manages their principal concerns, directs their industry, regulates the descent of property, and subdivides their inheritances what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and all the trouble of livingAlexis Tocqueville
In America there are so many ways to make a living that a man usually doesn't turn to politics until he has failed at everything else.
Alexis Tocqueville
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
Alexis Tocqueville
By obliging men to turn their attention to other affairs then their own, it rubs off that private selfishness which is the rust of society.
Alexis Tocqueville
In democratic ages men rarely sacrifice themselves for another, but they show a general compassion for all the human race. One never sees them inflict pointless suffering, and they are glad to relieve the sorrows of others when they can do so without much trouble to themselves. They are not disinterested, but they are gentle.
Alexis Tocqueville
Born often under another sky, placed in the middle of an always moving scene, himself driven by the irresistible torrent which draws all about him, the American has no time to tie himself to anything, he grows accustomed only to change, and ends by regarding it as the natural state of man. He feels the need of it, more he loves it for the instability instead of meaning disaster to him, seems to give birth only to miracles all about him.
Alexis Tocqueville
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Based on Topics: Habit Quotes, Ignorance Quotes, Life Quotes, Simplicity Quotes, Society & Civilization Quotes, Vice & Virtue QuotesBased on Keywords: denotes, rusticity, unacquainted, villager
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