The public, therefore, among a democratic people, has a singular power, which aristocratic nations cannot conceive; for it does not persuade others to its beliefs, but it imposes them and makes them permeate the thinking of everyone by a sort of enormous pressure of the mind of all upon the individual intelligence.


Book One, Chapter II. - Democracy in America, Volume II (1840)

Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes

The public, therefore, among a democratic people, has a singular power, which aristocratic nations cannot conceive; for it does not persuade others...

The public, therefore, among a democratic people, has a singular power, which aristocratic nations cannot conceive; for it does not persuade others...

The public, therefore, among a democratic people, has a singular power, which aristocratic nations cannot conceive; for it does not persuade others...

The public, therefore, among a democratic people, has a singular power, which aristocratic nations cannot conceive; for it does not persuade others...