Quotes About Influence

In reality it is far less prejudicial to witness the immorality of the great than to witness that immorality which leads to greatness.

The lawyers of the United States form a party which is but little feared and scarcely perceived, which has no badge peculiar to itself, which adapts itself with great flexibility to the exigencies of the time, and accommodates itself to all the movements of the social body; but this party extends over the whole community, and it penetrates into all classes of society; it acts upon the country imperceptibly, but it finally fashions it to suit its purposes.

In the United States, the majority undertakes to supply a multitude of ready-made opinions for the use of individuals, who are thus relieved from the necessity of forming opinions of their own.

The whole people contracts the habits and tastes of the magistrate.

In the United States, the majority takes upon itself the task of supplying to the individual a mass of ready-made opinions, thus relieving him of the necessity to take the proper responsibility of arriving at his own.

What one must fear, moreover, is not so much the sight of the immorality of the great as that of immorality leading to greatness.

The only way to neutralize the effect of public journals is to multiply them indefinitely.

If I were asked where I place the American aristocracy, I should reply without hesitation that it is not composed of the rich, who are united together by no common tie, but that it occupies the judicial bench and the bar.

In the township, as well as everywhere else, the people is the only source of power; but in no stage of government does the body of citizens exercise a more immediate influence.

The Americans of the United States stand in precisely the same position with regard to the peoples of South America as their fathers, the English, occupy with regard to the Italians, the Spaniards, the Portuguese, and all those nations of Europe which receive their articles of daily consumption from England, because they are less advanced in civilization and trade.

Consequently, in the United States the law favors those classes which are most interested in evading it elsewhere.

The jury, which is the most energetic means to make the people rule, is also the most effective means to teach them to rule.

Ainsi donc, en s'alliant à un pouvoir politique, la religion augmente sa puissance sur quelques-uns, et perd l'espérance de régner sur tous.

The two chief weapons which parties use in order to ensure success are the public press and the formation of associations.

It must never be forgotten that religion gave birth to Anglo-American society.

Os costumes, cuja excelência torna o governo quase inútil e cuja corrupção o torna quase impossível.

And now, As I come near the end of this book in which I have recorded so many considerable achievements of the Americans, if I am asked how we should account for the unusual prosperity and growing strength of this nation, I would reply that they must be attributed to the superiority of their woman.

By granting to the senators the privilege of being chosen for several years, and being renewed seriatim, the law takes care to preserve in the legislative body a nucleus of men already accustomed to public business, and capable of exercising a salutary influence upon the junior members.

There have never been free societies without mores, and as I said in the first part of this work,*1 it is woman who makes mores.

No sooner does a government attempt to go beyond its political sphere and to enter upon this new track, than it exercises, even unintentionally, an insupportable tyranny; for a government can only dictate strict rules, the opinions which it favors are rigidly enforced, and it is never easy to discriminate between its advice and its commands.

I readily discovered the prodigious influence that this primary fact exercises on the whole course of society; it gives a peculiar direction to public opinion and a peculiar tenor to the laws; it imparts new maxims to the governing authorities and peculiar habits to the governed.

The two chief weapons which parties use in order to obtain success are the newspapers and public associations.

according to the economists, the function of the state was not merely one of ruling the nation, but also that of recasting it in a given mold, of shaping the mentality of the population as a whole in accordance with a predetermined model and instilling the ideas and sentiments they thought desirable into the minds of all.

I soon perceived that the influence of this fact