I cannot help fearing that men may reach a point where they look on every new theory as a danger, every innovation as a toilsome trouble, every socia… - Alexis de Tocqueville

Every central government worships uniformity: uniformity relieves it from inquiry into an infinity of details.

Americans are so enamored of equality, they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.

In running over the pages of our history for seven hundred years, we shall scarcely find a single great event which has not promoted equality of condition. The Crusades and the English wars decimated the nobles and divided their possessions: the municipal corporations introduced democratic liberty into the bosom of feudal monarchy; the invention of fire-arms equalized the vassal and the noble on the field of battle; the art of printing opened the same resources to the minds of all classes; the post-office brought knowledge alike to the door of the cottage and to the gate of the palace; and Protestantism proclaimed that all men are alike able to find the road to heaven. The discovery of America opened a thousand new paths to fortune, and led obscure adventurers to wealth and power.