## Metadata - Author: [[Alexis de Tocqueville]] - Full Title: Alexis De Tocqueville - Category: #books ## Highlights - Some kings served democracy through their talents, others through their vices. Louis XI and Louis XIV tried hard to equalize everyone below the throne, and Louis XV descended with all his court into the dust. ([Location 181](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00838AS1W&location=181)) - To educate democracy — if possible to revive its beliefs; to purify its mores; to regulate its impulses; to substitute, little by little, knowledge of affairs for inexperience and understanding of true interests for blind instinct; to adapt government to its time and place; to alter it to fit circumstances and individuals — this is the primary duty imposed on the leaders of society today. ([Location 221](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00838AS1W&location=221)) - the democratic revolution has altered the material basis of society without bringing about the concomitant changes in laws, ideas, habits, and mores necessary to make it useful. Thus we have democracy minus that which ought to attenuate its vices and bring its natural advantages to the fore. We already see the evils it entails but know nothing as yet of the good it may bring. ([Location 234](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00838AS1W&location=234)) - Men do not become depraved through the exercise of power or the habit of obedience but rather by wielding a power that they consider to be illegitimate or by obeying a power that they regard as usurped and oppressive. ([Location 249](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00838AS1W&location=249)) - I can conceive of a society in which all people would think of themselves as the authors of the law, which they would consequently love and readily obey; and in which the authority of the government would be respected as necessary rather than divinely ordained, so that a person’s love for the head of state would be not a passion but a reasoned and tranquil sentiment. Because each individual would possess certain rights he could be sure of retaining, a manly confidence would develop between classes, a reciprocal condescension as devoid of pride as of servility. The people, instructed as to their true interests, would recognize that in order to enjoy the benefits of society one has to accept its burdens. Citizens joined together in free association might then replace the individual power of nobles, and the state would be protected against tyranny and license. To be sure, a democratic state constituted in this way would not stand still, but changes in the body of society would be orderly and progressive. Such a society would be less brilliant than an aristocracy but also less plagued by misery. Pleasures would be less extreme, prosperity more general. Knowledge would be less exalted but ignorance more rare. Feelings would be less passionate and habits milder. There would be more vices and fewer crimes. ([Location 257](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00838AS1W&location=257)) - People would prefer peace to war, not out of despair of living better but out of appreciation of living well. ([Location 270](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00838AS1W&location=270))