Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes

Of all the enemies of public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.

All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it.

There’s always this struggle in a war between liberty and security … during war time we have these excesses and afterwards we apologize.

The moral and constitutional obligations of our representatives in Washington are to protect our liberty, not coddle the world, precipitating no-win wars, while bringing bankruptcy and economic turmoil to our people.

After each war there is a little less democracy to save.

There are two things that will always be difficult for a democratic people to do: to start a war and to finish it

... standing armies in time of peace are dangerous to liberty ...

The cry has been that when war is declared, all opposition should therefore be hushed. A sentiment more unworthy of a free country should hardly be propagated. If the doctrine be admitted, rulers have only to declare war and they are screened at once from scrutiny.

We are about to ascertain by actual experience how far our republican institutions are calculated to stand the shock of war; and whether, after foreign danger has disappeared, we can again assume our peaceful attitude without endangering the liberties of the people.

Of all times in time of war the press should be free.

No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

We completely uphold the right of freedom of assembly. But there is always that important balance between security and freedom of expression in countries undergoing circumstances like ours.

Our armed forces will fight for peace in Iraq, a peace built on more secure foundations than are found today in the Middle East. Even more important, they will fight for two human conditions of even greater value than peace: liberty and justice.

Among all the upheavals of war with al Qaeda, the surest indicator of the historic stakes is the ongoing rotation of top U.S. government managers - scores at a time - into a bunker deep underground and far from Washington.

The President, in talking about freedom and democracy, is sparking a wave of very positive democratic sentiment that might help us override both Islamic fundamentalism that has formed in that region, and also some of the hatred for our policies of invading Iraq.

Some in my party threaten to send a message that they don't know a just war when they see it, and more broadly that they're not prepared to use our military strength to protect our security and the cause of freedom.

Can a democratic nation fight a War on Terror and at the same time bend over backward so as not to offend a few visitors' rights?

You could argue that war is always an irrational act, and yet many states enter into military conflict out of rational calculation or national interest or the stability or longevity of their regime.

Criticism in a time of war is essential to the maintenance of any kind of democratic government.

We simply cannot afford to allow our government to go unscrutinised, most of all in amid the bleak seeming imperatives of the 'war on terror'.

We're not going to spread democracy at the business end of a M16 held by a 23 year old Marine.

In matters of war, we undermine presidential credibility at our nation’s peril.

We have long since made clear that a state of war is not a blank check for the President when it comes to the rights of the Nation’s citizens.

A radical ... and revolutionary ... attack upon the fundamental basic principle of representative democracy for free people.

When a nation is at war many things that might be said in time of peace are such a hindrance to its efforts that their utterance will not be endured.