Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes

An elite class that is free to operate without limits - whether limits imposed by the rule of law or fear of the responses from those harmed by their behavior - is an elite class that will plunder, degrade, and cheat at will, and act endlessly to fortify its own power.

An organized effort is making to deceive the people. There are two great enemies of thought and progress, the aristocracy of royalty and the aristocracy of gold.

Slavery is malignantly aristocratic.

'Plutocracy.' It has a perfect nuance: chilly, inaccessible, icy-rich.

For there is no defense for a man who, in the excess of his wealth, has kicked the great altar of Justice out of sight.

The Few assume to be the deputies, but they are often only the despoilers of the Many.

The investigation has shown, let us hope, privilege at its worst. The trail is one of dishonesty, greed, violation of law, secrecy, concealment, evasion, falsehood, and cunning. It is a trail of betrayals by trusted and presumably honorable men--betrayals of a government, of certain business interests and the people who trusted and honored them; it is a trail showing a flagrant degree of the exercise of political power and influence, and the power and influence of great wealth upon individuals and political parties; it is the trail of despoilers and schemers, far more dangerous to the well-being of our Nation and our democracy than all those who have been deported

I am more and more convinced that man is a dangerous creature, and that power whether vested in many or few is ever grasping, and like the grave, cries, 'Give, give.'

… egotists, exploiters and aristocrats

... an apathetic indifferent meat in a sandwich that has an ever thinning slice of maniacal Plutocratic Gluttony on top and an ever thickening slice of rotten vermin rottening at the bottom.

It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes.

All riches come from iniquity, and unless one has lost, another cannot gain.

The concessions of the privileged to the unprivileged are so seldom brought about by any better motive than the power of the unprivileged to extort them

The Court is corrupt: The fields are overgrown with weeds; the granaries are empty. Yet there are those dressed in fineries, With swords at their sides: Filled with food and drink, Possessed of too much wealth. This is called "Taking the lead in robbery.

Sex and money always prowl in the penumbra of power.

Behind every great fortune there is a crime.

I never bought a man who wasn’t for sale.

Yes, SIRE, you are being misled, the goodwill of princes is being abused; even the Nobility itself is in the wrong.

Tradition has it that whenever a group of people has tasted the lovely fruits of wealth, security, and prestige, it begins to find it more comfortable to believe in the obvious lie and accept that it alone is entitled to privilege.

Some of these Ivy League kids want to have it both ways. They want to be baby members of the 1 percent, which they most certainly are, and yet still portray themselves as the oppressed.

Entitlement and privelege corrupt.

There are always people willing to commit unspeakable human atrocity in exchange for a little power and privilege.

The real power in America is held by a fast-emerging new Oligarchy of pimps and preachers who see no need for Democracy or fairness or even trees, except maybe the ones in their own yards, and they don't mind admitting it.

Of all forms of tyranny the least attractive and the most vulgar is the tyranny of mere wealth.

Power is every stealing from the many to the few.