De Tocqueville Quotes

Since my blog title is borrowed from Alexis De Tocqueville's book of the same name, I decided it might be a good idea to actually read his book.  So that is what I am doing presently.  I am not the quickest reader though and after 6 weeks or so I am a little over half way through this 900+ page classic.  I just got through emailing a few quotes from the book to a friend.  After going to the work of typing them out I decided I may as well add them to the blog too.  The quotes are on my standard themes of marriage and religion.  Enjoy:)

Here is De Tocqueville commenting on marriage in America and contrasting it to the situation in Europe at the time (1835-ish; bold added):

"America is certainly the country where the bonds of marriage are most respected and where the concept of conjugal bliss has its highest and truest expression.  In Europe almost all social disorder stems from disturbances at home and not far removed from the marriage bed.  There men come to feel scorn for natural ties and legitimate pleasures;  there they develop a liking for disorder, a restless spirit, and fluctuating desires.  Shaken by the tempestuous emotions which often trouble his own home, the European finds it difficult to submit to the authority of the state's legislators.  When the American returns from the turmoil of politics to the bosom of his family, he immediately finds a perfect picture of orderliness and peace.  There, all his pleasures are simple and natural, his joys innocent and quiet; and since he reaches happiness through the regularity of his life, he has no difficulty in regulating his opinions as well as his tastes.  Whereas the European seeks to escape from his domestic troubles by disturbing society, the American draws the love of order from his home which he then carries over into his affairs of state."

Here is a great passage from De Tocqueville regarding the importance of religion to American Democracy:

In the United States, religion governs not only behavior but extends its influence to men's minds.  Among Anglo-Americans there are some who profess Christian dogmas out of belief, others because they are afraid they might appear to lack belief.  So Christianity reigns without obstacles by universal consent;  so, as I have already said elsewhere, the result is that in the world of morality everything is definite and settled, although the world of politics is given over to debate and human experiment.  Thus, the mind of man never beholds an unlimited field in front of itself; however bold he might be, man senses from time to time that he must halt before insurmountable barriers and test his most audacious ideas against certain formalities, which either hold him back or stop him altogether.  The imagination of Americans, even in its greatest flights of fancy, is circumspect and cautions.  Its impulses are restricted and its achievements unfinished.  These habits of restraint are found in political society and to an unusual degree favor the tranquility of the people and the stability of the institutions they have adopted.  Nature and circumstance have turned the inhabitant of the United States into a bold man;  this is easily proved by the manner in which he seeks his fortune.  If the mind of the Americans were free of all shackles, one would soon encounter among them the boldest innovators and the most relentless logicians in the world.  But American revolutionaries are forced publicly to profess a certain respect for Christian morality and equity, which does not allow them easily to violate their plans;  and were they to manage to rise above their scruples themselves, they would still feel hindered by those of their supporters.  Up until now, no one in the United States has dared to promote the maxim that everything is legitimized in the interests of society, an impious maxim which seems to have been invented in an age of liberty simply to justify every future tyrant.  Thus, while the law allows the American people to do everything, religion prevents their imagining everything and forbids them from daring to do everything.  Religion, which never interferes directly in the government of Americans, should therefore be regarded as the first of their political institutions, for, if it does not give them the taste for liberty, it enables them to take unusual advantage of it.

 That last section in bold is, I think, the key to liberty.  It's message may help us understand more clearly why our freedoms are under attack at the present.  Compare this message to a talk given by Elder D. Todd Christofferson (LDS Apostle) in October 2009: link to talk here.