Alexis de Tocqueville

Have you ever met someone or read about someone that investigated things of interest to them and their findings astounded others? There are people like that in every generation. Some of the time it is in the area of science, education, religion, politics, etc. You get the idea that interests vary and every person has interests that get their own personal motor running. One of mine is that I love reading specific things. I don’t read a lot of what I call fluff. Those are books, webpages or articles that have the nutritional value of cotton candy. I do love reading about the founding of America. I do love reading what others have said about America, whether in songs or in their stories. One of those I like to read and re-read quotes from is a Frenchman named Alexis de Tocqueville. He lived from 1805 until 1859. He was a historian and French Diplomat. His most famous writing has to be “Democracy in America.” It was one of the most influential books of the 1800’s (19th century) and continues to be used especially in American patriotic circles. He came to America, traveled, and came to certain conclusions about the greatness of America when compared to other places. About the only issue that I have with him is his usage of the word democracy. Most often that word has to do with majority rule and I like to use the word republic which means rule of law. But today isn’t a day for nit picking. I want to share several of quotes that I have used and read many times over. I hope you will enjoy his findings and wisdom as much as I have. These quotes can be found all over the internet.

• “Despotism often presents itself as the repairer of all the ills suffered, the support of just rights, defender of the oppressed, and founder of order.”
• “Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.”
• “It is easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth.”
• “Liberty cannot be established without morality, and morality without faith.”
• “I do not know if the people of America would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run.”
• “I studied the Koran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as that of Mohammed. So far as I can see, it is the principle cause of the decadence so visible today in the Muslim world and, though less absurd than the polytheism of old, its social and political tendencies are in my opinion to be feared, and I therefore regard it as a form of decadence rather than a form of progress in relation to paganism itself.”
• “In the United States the sovereign authority is religious…There is no country in the whole world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America, and there can be no greater proof of its utility and of its conformity to human nature than that its influence is powerfully felt over the most enlightened and free nation of the earth.”
• “Christianity is the companion of liberty in all its conflicts – the cradle of its infancy, and the divine source of its claims.”
• “The American republic will endure until the day congress learns it can bribe the public with the public’s money.”
Let me share one final quote. It is by far my favorite among them all.
• “I sought for the greatness of the United States in her commodious harbors, her ample rivers, her fertile fields, and boundless forests—and it was not there. I sought for it in her rich mines, her vast world commerce, her public school system, and in her institutions of higher learning— and it was not there. I looked for it in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution—and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great!” (Italics mine).

Toward the end of the last quote, he says, “America is great because America is good…” At least two of our presidents, Eisenhower and Reagan, used those words in their speeches. They knew that America was unique on the world’s stage. Our telos was different than others. Telos was a term used by Aristotle and our founders knew about it. He taught that every entity has a telos, a final cause that shapes its purpose, potential and very existence. America’s telos has always been as a force for moral good in the world (providencemag.com).
Did you notice the themes that flowed through most of these quotes? Churches, religion, Christianity, morality. These are only a sampling of words and his admiration for America. All this observation from a Frenchman who knew about his own country’s French Revolution and the American Revolution and their vast differences and outcomes. “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance” Psalm 33:12. America’s heritage is religious whether half the country likes it or not. Learn to read after wise people. It will give you an understanding needed in these times we find ourselves.