[SeekAndFind]

I am sharing this old article with FReepers because I still hear a lot of speakers and even preachers cite Alexis De Tocqueville as the source of this famous quote.

This is a great quote, but apparently Tocqueville didn't say it. So who did ?

[SeekAndFind]

This are the of-quoted lines attributed to Tocqueville ( which according to the author, he did not say ):

I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers - and it was not there . . . in her fertile fields and boundless forests and it was not there . . . in her rich mines and her vast world commerc - and it was not there . . . in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution - and it vas not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.

[ConservativeMind]

Okay, so some of those words were not written by him, but which ones were?

This article sucks.

[Gondring]

Likewise the spurious quote, “The American republic will endure until Congress realizes it can bribe the people with their own money” and its many variations.

And same with the Alexander Tyler (sic) “quote”: “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury.”

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

I’d have to look in my copy again, but I thought I saw this (or at least part of it) when I read it...

[katana]

Don’t know who wrote or said it, but it is a very nice passage. America, being made up of humans, is a mix of good and bad with extremes at both ends. I would say America is great, or was able to attain greatness, because it’s free. We will always have our good and bad aspects, but if we cease to be free we will cease to be great. Making America not so “great” is the primary objective of the current, and so far quite successful, effort to make us less free.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

Free online

Etext-No. Author Title Language
815 Tocqueville, Alexis de, 1805-1859 [Author]
•Reeves, Henry, 1813-1895 [Translator]
Democracy in America — Volume 1 English
816 Tocqueville, Alexis de, 1805-1859 [Author]
•Reeves, Henry, 1813-1895 [Translator]
Democracy in America — Volume 2

[Gondring]

I got an odd sense of déjà vu as I started the article, and was about to cry plagiarism before I realized that it was a repost of an old one. :-)

[SunkenCiv]

In 1987, Rep. William Dannemeyer quoted the passage's final line, adding that "America ceased to be good in 1971, when America's promise to pay ceased to be good." He was referring to President Nixon's decision to close the gold window.

There aren't any intelligent economists who think that A) that's what happened verbatim or B) that it was a bad idea. The total US debt in 1970 or so exceeded the value of the bullion held by the US government, so President Nixon ended the fiction that currency is backed by gold. Thanks SeekAndFind.

[Ezekiel]

"America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great."

...apparently Tocqueville didn't say it. So who did ?

God. It's really just a delicate way of summarizing Leviticus 26.