The aspect of American society is animated, because men and things are always changing; but it is monotonous, because all the changes are alike.
Alexis De TocquevilleRead
The Americans combine the notions of religion and liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive of one without the other.
Interpretation
The quote illustrates how deeply intertwined religion and freedom are in American thought, making it hard to separate the two concepts.
Alexis De Tocqueville observes that for Americans, religion and liberty are not just connected but are seen as fundamentally linked aspects of their identity. This intertwining creates a viewpoint where the idea of freedom is inextricably associated with religious beliefs, suggesting that the exercise of personal liberties is often influenced by spiritual values.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of civil liberties, one might quote Tocqueville to emphasize how American values are shaped by both faith and freedom.
The aspect of American society is animated, because men and things are always changing; but it is monotonous, because all the changes are alike.
Democratic communities have a natural taste for freedom: left to themselves they will seek it, cherish it, and view any deprivation of it with regret. But for equality their passion is ardent, insatiable, incessant, invincible: they call for equality in freedom; and if they cannot obtain that, they still call for equality in slavery.
Religion, which never intervenes directly in the government of American society, should therefore be considered as the first of their political institutions
The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through.
The Indian knew how to live without wants, to suffer without complaint, and to die singing.
Grant me thirty years of equal division of inheritances and a free press, and I will provide you with a republic.
During my three years in Vietnam, I certainly heard plenty of last words by dying American footsoldiers. Not one of them, however, had illusions that he had somehow accomplished something worthwhile in the process of making the Supreme Sacrifice.
An election is a collective call to wisdom and a collective call to action. It represents a renewal and a recommitment to the goals and hopes of a shared and egalitarian society. It represents the diverse and yet singular urges of the people and the Republic of India. This makes the very act of voting a sacred act.
There is no use being alive if one must work. The event from which each of us is entitled to expect the revelation of his own lifeβs meaning - that event which I may not yet have found, but on whose path I seek myself - is not earned by work.
Sometimes I remind myself that I almost skipped the party, that I almost went to a different college, that the whim of a minute could have changed everything and everyone. Our lives, so settled, so specific, are built on happenstance.
Whoever commands the sea, commands the trade; whosoever commands the trade of the world commands the riches of the world, and consequently the world itself.
Where there is no free agency, there can be no morality. Where there is no temptation, there can be little claim to virtue. Where the routine is rigorously proscribed by law, the law, and not the man, must have the credit of the conduct.
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