Democratic nations care but little for what has been, but they are haunted by visions of what will be; in this direction their unbounded imagination grows and dilates beyond all measure.... Democracy, which shuts the past against the poet, opens the future before him.


Democracy in America, pt. II (1840), bk. I, ch. 17

Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes

Democratic nations care but little for what has been, but they are haunted by visions of what will be; in this direction their unbounded imagination...

Democratic nations care but little for what has been, but they are haunted by visions of what will be; in this direction their unbounded imagination...

Democratic nations care but little for what has been, but they are haunted by visions of what will be; in this direction their unbounded imagination...

Democratic nations care but little for what has been, but they are haunted by visions of what will be; in this direction their unbounded imagination...