The aspect of American society is animated, because men and things are always changing; but it is monotonous, because all the changes are alike.
Interpretation
American society is full of constant change, yet these changes lack diversity and uniqueness.
Alexis De Tocqueville highlights a paradox in American society where there is an illusion of vibrant change due to the constant flux of events and people, but upon closer inspection, these changes are fundamentally similar, leading to a sense of monotony. This suggests that while society appears dynamic on the surface, it can lack depth and variety in its transformations.
In practice
In a discussion about societal trends at a conference on urban development.
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.
When none but the wealthy had watches, they were almost all very good ones; few are now made which are worth much, but everybody has one in his pocket.
There is no debate about whether or not climate change is happening. We will deal with it as a challenge. But we also take it as an opportunity to invest.
The women's movement hit my neighborhood like a freight train. Everybody got divorced. You wonder what would have happened to women if the suburbs hadn't been built.
If you want to change the world, you have to change the metaphor.
I think Dr. King would be pleased to see the number of elected officials of color - African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and progressive whites.
But the whole point of the Sixties was that you had to take people as they were. If you came in with us you left your class, and colour, and religion behind, that was what the Sixties was all about.
You have to know how to evolve with age without trying to hang on to your younger image of yourself from the past.
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