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Alexis de Tocqueville

Quote of Alexis de Tocqueville - When the past no longer illuminates...


Biography - Alexis de Tocqueville:

French diplomat, political scientist and historian.
Born: 1805 - Died: 1859
Period:
19th century
Place of birth: France
France

When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.


Note 

Note






Translation

Translation

(French, German)



French
Quand le passé n'éclaire plus l'avenir, l'esprit marche dans les ténèbres.

German
Seit die Vergangenheit aufgehört hat, ihr Licht auf die Zukunft zu werfen, irrt der menschliche Geist in der Finsternis.




See also 

See also...



Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too.

What experience and history teach is this — that people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it.




Quotes for: mind


Quotes

Quotes about mind:


Hide your life and spread your spirit.





A healthy mind in a healthy body.





The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, not to worry about the future, or not to anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.





It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well.





My spirit yearns for action, my breath for freedom.





It is spirit that rules the world, not intelligence.











Quotes for: past


Quotes

Quotes about the past:


The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.





Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils; but present evils triumph over it.





The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, not to worry about the future, or not to anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.





Children have neither a past nor a future. Thus they enjoy the present, which seldom happens to us.





The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.





Whoever you are, here is your master:
He is, was or will be.












Quotes for: future


Quotes

Quotes about the future:


Enjoy present pleasures in such a way as not to injure future ones.
Seneca / 





As for the future, your task is not to foresee it, but to enable it.





Man is the future of man.





Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.





The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.





Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils; but present evils triumph over it.











Quotes

Alexis de Tocqueville also said...


Amongst democratic nations, each new generation is a new people.





The nations of our time cannot prevent the conditions of men from becoming equal; but it depends upon themselves whether the principle of equality is to lead them to servitude or freedom, to knowledge or barbarism, to prosperity or to wretchedness.





Nations do not grow old in the same way that men do. Each generation born within the nation is like a new people.





What is most important for democracy is not that great fortunes should not exist, but that great fortunes should not remain in the same hands. In that way there are rich men, but they do not form a class.





The power of the periodical press is second only to that of the people.





He was as great as a man can be without morality.












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