Growls

“Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville (July 29, 1805 – April 16, 1859) was a French political thinker and historian best known for his Democracy in Americ," according to Wikepedia, which adds:

“(America’s) rapidly democratizing society, as Tocqueville understood it, had a population devoted to "middling" values which wanted to amass, through hard work, vast fortunes. In Tocqueville's mind, this explained why America was so different from Europe. In Europe, he claimed, nobody cared about making money. The lower classes had no hope of gaining more than minimal wealth, while the upper classes found it crass, vulgar, and unbecoming of their sort to care about something as unseemly as money; many were virtually guaranteed wealth and took it for granted. At the same time in America workers would see people fashioned in exquisite attire and merely proclaim that through hard work they too would soon possess the fortune necessary to enjoy such luxuries.”

The wisdom of de Tocqueville is also shown in some of his quotations, including the following taken from Brainyquote.com:

• “The American Republic will endure, until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money.”

• (alternative shown) “The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money."
  

• "Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of government. The history of liberty is the history of resistance. The history of liberty is a history of the limitation of governmental power, not the increase of it."
  

• “A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.”
  

• “America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

• “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. ”
  

• “The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.”
  

• “The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens.”
  

• “The power of the periodical press is second only to that of the people.”
  

• “There is hardly a pioneer's hut which does not contain a few odd volumes of Shakespeare. I remember reading the feudal drama of Henry V for the first time in a log cabin.”