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Alexis de Tocqueville > Quotes > Quotable Quote
“There are at the present time two great nations in the world,
which started from different points, but seem to tend towards the same
end. I allude to the Russians and the Americans. Both of them have grown
up unnoticed; and whilst the attention of mankind was directed
elsewhere, they have suddenly placed themselves in the front rank among
the nations, and the world learned their existence and their greatness
at almost the same time.
All other nations seem to have nearly
reached their natural limits, and they have only to maintain their
power; but these are still in the act of growth. All the others have
stopped, or continue to advance with extreme difficulty; these alone are
proceeding with ease and celerity along a path to which no limit can be
perceived. The American struggles against the obstacles which nature
opposes to him; the adversaries of the Russian are men. The former
combats the wilderness and savage life; the latter, civilization with
all its arms. The conquests of the American are therefore gained with
the ploughshare; those of the Russian by the sword. The Anglo-American
relies upon personal interest to accomplish his ends, and gives free
scope to the unguided strength and common sense of the people; the
Russian centres all the authority of society in a single arm. The
principal instrument of the former is freedom; of the latter, servitude.
Their starting-point is different, and their courses are not the same;
yet each of them seems marked out by the will of Heaven to sway the
destinies of half the globe.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
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